John and Adrian attended a committee meeting in the Town Hall this evening about Children & Young People.

Neither of us is a member and we were both standing in a substitutes for others who could not be there.  In a highly detailed, and altogether excellent, report to the committee it was revealed that a higher proportion of rowdyism and the like had been reported by calls from Seacombe than from any other ward.

Looks bad?  Well, does it?  When you dig a bit deeper?

The report did not describe increased rowdyism and other sorts of bad behaviour; it reported increased ‘calls’ about such things.  When people fail to call the police, or other services such as the Anti Social Behaviour Team and so on and so forth, thing go unreported.  When they are not reported there are simply no statistics and it looks much better.

Adrian asked the Council’s professional officers whether the reality could be that because of the huge presence in Seacombe of our supportive services the apparent position could well be skewed precisely because we encourage a culture of not just putting up with anti-social behaviour but of calling in to report it.  Surely that is a good sign, not a bad one?

John pointed to the several instances of Section 30 Notices being put in place so that specific areas were given special attention for a period of time.  He also pointed to the frequent appearance of the mobile police station at hot spots and to the frequent visits by the Council’s ‘Respect Bus’ and its fine team of professional youth workers.   In addition we have excellent Residents’ Associations actively promoting youth work; the ever present help of the Area Wardens; the constant vigilance of our Police Community Support Officers and of course the work of the Allandale Youth Club (where Adrian remains a member of the management committee).

So can it just be that the high incidence of reporting anti social behaviour should be seen in the context of all of the support given to the community to make sure wayward people who make others’ lives misearble just don’t get away with it?  The view of our Professional Officers was this view is absolutely spot on and thank God Seacombe people increasingly have the confidence to call in to report – and not just put up with it.

So if there should be any headline stories about Seacombe being like Dodge City just smile broadly; we can be proud that our residents no longer hesitate to report wrong-doing.  And if crime is going down isn’t it precisely because more ‘calls’ are taken by people with the confidence to report it, instead of just accepting it?