Borough Contributions to Community Safety

Communities and local councils currently have little say over how and what the local police are doing in their areas and nor do the police have the flexibility to respond to local needs above national targets.  Yet despite this, London Councils’ survey shows that local authorities continue to contribute over £50 million pounds towards achieving safer communities.

Under current legislation local authorities are under no statutory obligation to contribute any of their budgets to supporting the police in their areas, local authorities still allocate a proportion of their budgets towards the creation of safer communities and neighbourhoods in their localities. The contribution that local authorities make towards policing in London has never been fully acknowledged.  The majority of local authorities see achieving safe living environments with low levels of crime as an important part of their role and service to the communities that they serve.

Community safety is an important issue for local authorities and this is reflected in the commitment made to it by local authorities.  It transcends political barriers, with all London local authorities putting funding towards enhancing community safety in their areas.

Councils already have a clear democratic mandate and understanding of local priorities including the priorities for community safety in their areas.  The survey shows that funding from the London boroughs goes towards similar projects.  This is a strong indicator for the need and importance of these projects to the communities. The areas that local authorities contribute towards can be classified into the following main groups:

• The provision of additional funding to support more visible street patrols. This is done by contributing towards having additional police community support officers (PCSOs) and police constables. The increased visible patrols help communities to feel safer and have been found to have an impact on particular problems areas such as ASB. Kensington and Chelsea alone in 2008/2009 has contributed towards meeting the costs of 76 PCSOs at a cost £20 000 per PCSO.
• The provision of local authority facilities to the police so that they can be accessible through the local authority as well. This takes the form of various ways such as provision of premises, desks, equipment etc.
• Local authorities are also investing more in the provision and monitoring CCTV

Not only do local authorities contribute to various key areas impacting on community safety they also do this through the strategic partnerships that they have in their localities and through structures such as the local area agreements (LAAs).

Considering the contribution made to community safety by local authorities the argument to strengthen local accountability is a strong one and more should be done to make it work (see table in related document below).