Make Your Voice Heard with the Reading Community Safety Survey

RESIDENTS are being invited to have their say about issues which concern them in their area.

Reading Borough Council’s Neighbourhood Initiatives Team would like as many people as possible to take part in their Community Safety Survey 2019 to tell them about the issues that concern residents most in their neighbourhood. The survey, which is available online, asks people about matters such as crime, parking, litter and anti-social behaviour. Responses will be analysed over the Christmas period, broken down into area-by-area data and then considered in conjunction with the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) priorities for Reading along with locally reported crime across the borough, the British Crime Survey and priorities identified by Thames Valley Police. Priorities will then be fed back to the local Safer Neighbourhood Forums (SNF) and other local community groups and will then be set accordingly. Local residents will be able to attend meetings to discuss their top three priorities and talk about possible solutions or feed in to online discussions. It only takes a few minutes to fill in the survey which can be found online at: https://consult.reading.gov.uk/dens/community-safety-survey-2019/ The survey begins on Monday 7th October and runs until Friday 15th November. Anyone without access to a computer can drop into one of Reading’s libraries during a ‘Get online’ session. http://go-reading.org/.

Councillor Tony Page, Deputy Council Leader, said:

“Safer Neighbourhood Forums and other local community groups play a big part in tackling issues which matter to people. However, they can only work effectively if they know the priorities of the local community. That is why it is so important residents have their say and take part in this survey.” The last survey in 2017 received nearly 1,000 responses across Reading and showed parking, speeding, drugs and begging as the biggest priorities in most areas. A range of actions were undertaken in response, including West Reading SNF engaging local residents to work alongside police in speeding operations in Tilehurst and youth activities put in place to divert young people away from anti-social behaviour in Southcote. The information was also used directly by Reading’s CSP to identify its priorities, including a focus on illegal drug use. The Safer Neighbourhood Forums consist of representatives from Thames Valley Police and Reading Borough Council and members of the community who work together to tackle specific issues. More information about the SNFs and how to get involved is available by contacting the Neighbourhood Initiatives Team by e-mail at: neighbourhoodinitiatives@reading.gov.uk