Hag Fold is in Atherton ward; it is a mostly residential area with around 3,000 households and a few small businesses.
The organisations who got involved included Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Service, Greater Manchester Police, British Transport Police, Network Rail, Kickz, Wigan & Leigh Housing, Greater Manchester Transport Authority, and various Council departments.
Many local residents also volunteered their time; from litter picking, to giving us their views about the estate, to coming along to the fun day.
Hag Fold also became the testing ground for the Community Improvement Project; after months of planning it was finally time to put into practice all the ideas and actions the agencies had come up with.
Information on crime, repeat victims, offenders, deliberate fires, anti social behaviour, and environmental issues were analysed. The areas within Hag Fold that were worst affected were identified and 2,500 letters and information leaflets were distributed to households. We also consulted with Dorset Road Community Centre to see if it would make a suitable 'base of operations' for the duration of the CIP.
Dorset Road community centre
Throughout the CIP Dorset Road community centre provided a base of operations for the CIP team. The centre is well used by many in the community and provides a variety of activities, information, and support to the community. Hopefully the CIP will have encouraged even more residents to visit the centre.
The centre is staffed by a dedicated group of volunteers (pictured here). All are welcome at the centre and they are always on the look out for more people to get involved. Visit the centre for more details about the activities and volunteer opportunities on offer.
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'Door knocking' sessions were carried out over 5 evenings beginning on the 7th January 2008. Officers from Wigan council, PCSO's, British Transport Police, Wigan & Leigh Housing, and many others knocked on every door in the area to grill the residents about their priorities and the problems they had experienced in the area. The officers worked in pairs and were teamed up with an officer they did not know from a different agency. Using the consultation questionnaire developed for the Partners and communities together (PACT) consultation, the officers gathered an enormous amount of information and intelligence. The questionnaire takes around 5 minutes to complete but residents were encouraged to say as much or as little as they liked - one officer spent over an hour with one resident!
The officers involved then fed back the information they gathered to the Research and information section within the Environmental Services department of the council. The data was analysed and passed to the appropriate agency to be actioned.
Officers and residents gave great feedback from the consultation: one resident commented that they often feel forgotten in Hag Fold so it was great to see so many officers out and about in the area actually listening to what residents had to say. Officers involved in the door knocking all agreed it was great to get out of the office and talk to the residents and also to get to know officers from other organisations.
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The CIP team of 'Educators' visited Meadowbank, St. Georges, and St. Richards primary schools.
- PC Chris Kelly talked to the children about anti social behaviour in the community.
- John Burns, Community Safety Officer for the Fire Service, talked to them about fire and water safety and why it was dangerous to make hoax calls and set fires deliberately.
- Nick Burdekin, Damien Jenkinson, and Stuart Richardson, from Wigan Council, taught the children the importance of not dropping litter and what happens to our rubbish when it is collected. Stuart also brought with him a pavement sweeper machine to show the children how they work.
- Kathy Godfrey, from BTCV, taught the children how to look after the wildlife in their area and helped them make bird boxes.
Following the classes the children completed feedback questionnaires. They were asked about what they had learned from the classes about their community. All the educators were well received; in the vote for favourite thing about the classes the bird boxes, road swwper, and PC Kelly got the most votes.
School Based Police Officer Andy Wright also talked to pupils at Hesketh Fletcher High School about anti socail behaviour and crime in the area.
Children from Meadowbank primary school took part in a visual audit of the estate to assess the state of the environment and to identify the 'grot spots' in the area.
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Using the information gathered from the community in stage 2 and the data collected in stage 1 agencies held a week of enforcement from the 21-25 January. They targetted truants, trespassing on rail network property, drugs, anti social behaviour, underage alcohol and tobacco sales, fare dodging on public transport, checking commercial property licences, benefit fraud, and vehicles and drivers without tax, insurace, MOT's, and licenses.
The aim of the week was to provide high profile policing and get as many different agencies operating in the area as possible. Officers form different agencies teamed up to help get better results. As the intelligence came largely from the community we hope it sent a clear message that crime would not be tollerated by the community. The outcomes included:
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Having completed a week long blitz on crime and anti social behaviour, agencies spent a week blitzing litter and flytipping in the area. Skips were brought onto the estate for residents to get rid of their unwanted waste, and an army of organisations and community volunteers litter-picked and cleaned their way through the estate.
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After all the hard work we felt the community deserved a bit of fun. Activities and events were arranged throughout the week at Dorset Road community centre culminating in a fun day on the 9th February and a football match between the Atherton Policing team and the local Kickz team.
Activities during the week included advice sessions:
- Victim Support offered advice and free home security products;
- Recycling information;
- Healthy living, including free smoothies;
- parenting support and early years advice and information for families and children;
- career advice for young people from the Youth Offending Team and Connexions;
- crime prevention advice fromt he Community Safety Team.
The fun day
The fun day took place on the 9th February; there was a face painter, Kevin the clown, and crafting. Greater Manchester Police held a car competition and the Fire service brought a fire engine.
Team Atherton v Atherton Kickz
A team of officers from the Atherton Neighbourhood Police team took on the local Kickz team on the 10th February.
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