Wigtown Area Community Safety Survey Results
Members of the Wigtown Area Committee will hear later this week (13 July) that people feel safer in their communities.
Members of the committee will be asked to review the results of the latest annual Community Safety Survey and also note the allocations to the Community Safety Fund for the forthcoming year.
The survey pulled in a superb 1,117 responses from across the region, a 76% increase from the same survey last year. Running for 12 weeks and closing on 24 December 2015, the number of responses received from the Wigtown area alone was 191, an increase of 84 (79%) on 2014/15.
The survey demonstrated that 99% of Wigtown respondents feel safe in their own neighbourhoods during the day, and 90% feel safe in their neighbourhood at night.
Wigtown respondents said that antisocial behaviour was not a problem in their area; however, respondents felt that Dog Fouling was the biggest community safety issue in their area, with 61% agreeing, followed by litter/fly tipping, with 48% agreeing.
The data collected will be used by the Community Safety Team to plan their workloads and will allow them to focus in on areas of concern to the public.
Additional questions were introduced into this year’s survey to give Trading standards data on the scale of the problem caused by unwanted phone calls, mail, emails and doorstep callers. These commercial activities are becoming recognised as a form of anti-social behaviour and can lead to significant levels of financial harm, as well as a high degree of annoyance.
Almost all Wigtown respondents (94%) had received junk mail, 50% had received suspicious emails, and 34% had been subjected to unwanted doorstop sellers. 13 people confirmed that they had given out money or information, which they later regretted. This data will now be used to create a financial harm toolkit, which will include information on how to reduce this type of nuisance, and how to avoid being scammed.
Councillors will also be asked to note allocations made to the Community Safety Fund as part of the above report. The fund, which totalled £36,381 in the Wigtownshire area, welcomes applications which aim to address the priorities of the Community Safety Partnership;
• Antisocial Behaviour
• Road Safety
• Substance Misuse
• Public Protection
• Violent Crime
• Emergency Planning
• Terrorism
In Wigtown alone, 18 applications have been received for the 2016 fund (round 4), which closed for applications at the end of March, with 87% of the funding already agreed to and allocated. Members at this committee will decided on the allocation of the remaining amount. The fifth round of the Community Safety Fund is now open for funding requests.
Chair of Wigtown Area Committee, Councillor Marion McCutcheon said; “The report demonstrates that there’s a lot of good work being done by the Community Safety Teams across Dumfries and Galloway and I am delighted this is being reflected in the response from residents saying they feel safe in their area. I would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete the survey; it’s a wonderful response rate and shows that our residents care about their neighbourhoods. The results allow us to see what we do well, but also what we need to improve on.
I am also pleased to see applications coming into the Community Safety Fund for some very worthwhile funding. It is vital that we utilise funds like this to better protect and enhance our communities, not only in Wigtownshire, but right across Dumfries and Galloway.”
