Town centre sees antisocial behaviour surge
ANTISOCIAL behaviour in one South Wales town centre rocketed by more than 80% this summer compared to last year.
A report from South Wales Police showed instances of anti-social behaviour has increased by 81% in Merthyr Tydfil between April and September this year compared to the same time last year.
The total number of antisocial behaviour incidents recorded between April and September has gone up from 164 last year to 297 this year.
The borough’s council has started a review of the issues as it plans to come up with a strategic and tactical approach to dealing with them.
The report, due to be considered by councillors on Tuesday, said the town centre faced “significant challenges” from the Covid pandemic.
It said the use of the Castle Hotel to house homeless people had led to an “increase of perceived antisocial behaviour, not necessarily by the residents but by associates who have congregated into the town centre. The authority is under increasing pressure with homelessness and provision of accommodation.”
It also said that during the lockdown, with fewer shoppers and visitors, antisocial behaviour in the town centre became more visible and attracted several social media posts relating to incidents.
Antisocial behaviour is recorded in three different categories, including environmental, nuisance and personal.
Environmental involves things like offroad biking, joy riding and issues affecting the environment.
Nuisance is when the antisocial behaviour is not strictly targeting an individual personally but is causing them issues and personal is when it is targeted towards someone such as neighbour disputes.
There were 96 incidents of environmental antisocial behaviour recorded between April and September this year which is up from just six in the same period last year.
There were 170 incidents of nuisance antisocial behaviour in that period this year which is up from 124 in the same period last year.
Incidents of personal antisocial behaviour have gone down slightly from 34 between April and September last year to 31 in the same period this year.
Merthyr Tydfil Community Safety Team within the Community Safety Partnership carry out work in conjunction with South Wales Police and other partners in tackling antiSocial behaviour within the County Borough.
Community safety have issued 161 antisocial behaviour warning notices at a “stage one” level and, for those not complying, 29 have moved to the second stage warning level.
Various meetings have been held involving the council and its partners which have revealed that a number of services are located within the town centre which support vulnerable residents with complex needs and, in some cases, have substance misuse issues.
The courts and probation services are also town centre-based so police have difficulty in using all their enforcement tools such as Criminal Behaviour Orders (CBOs) because they are unable to ban offenders from the town centre as there is a need for them to be there to access these services
The report added that there is a perception of under reporting of ASB (antisocial behaviour) and public mistrust in the 101 system.
But it also said that all town centre CCTV cameras have been upgraded to new high definition quality.
A Safer Streets Home Office Grant has been received by the council to expand and introduce new crime prevention and detection initiatives within the town centre.
These include additional CCTV cameras, a loudspeaker system, help points and additional street lighting.
The council is hoping to create a “one stop shop” for support services such as criminal justice services, drug & alcohol services and housing and remove the town centre as a focal point for these services.
It also wants to reduce incidents of antisocial behaviour through prevention and enforcement and use the design of town centre transformation projects to help reduce anti-social behaviour.