SNAP blog
Sunday 25 July 2010
Police activity
The mobile police station was at The Willows today for Salford City Reds’ home game against Leeds Rhinos. We spoke to a lots of people about their concerns and issues in the community.
We also advised parents about alternative activities for their children to get involved with as part of the Safe4Summer campaign. The summer holidays can sometimes get boring for children so it's important there are things for them to do, instead of involve themselves with anti-social behaviour. To find out what's going on in your area, visit the Safe4summer website.
Officers also handed out free burglary packs, advising people on how to keep their property safe. Burglars are always on the lookout for easy opportunities to steal your valuables so it's important to keep your doors and windows secure. If you are going out, lock them and set an alarm. Also leave a light on, giving the impression that someone is home.
The whole day was a success and it was a pleasure to speak to members of the community. The only down-side was Salford's result but fingers crossed for the remainder of the season.
Officers also attended a special ‘Alice in Wonderland’ event at Buile Hill Park which was a chance to interact with the children and give them advice on activities during the school holidays.
Craig Roberts
Community Beat Sergeant, Greater Manchester Police
Saturday 24 July 2010
Police activity
On Saturday, we continued with checking that taxis are correctly licensed along with the roll out of SmartWater property marking. During the week, City Link apartments, Chancery Gardens and other blocks have been targeted with a take up in excess of 50%.
A male adult was found to be in possession of cannabis and another was arrested for a public order offence.
Craig Roberts
Community Beat Sergeant, Greater Manchester Police
Friday 23 July 2010
Mobile youth bus
On Friday night the mobile visited Buile Hill Park. There were lots of young people ranging in age who were passing through the park on there way to friends but they stopped to talk. They positively engaged with workers and had discussions around sexual health and safe drinking.
Condom distribution is part of the Friday night focus to ensure and encourage safe sex however most of the young people had already engaged either with other youth workers or the Ibulance (Child Action North West).
The police unit was also out engaging with young people and again they were moving from one bus to another finding out what was going on in the area.
Jess Haywood
Senior Youth Work Manager, Salford City Council
Cleaning your streets
Throughout the week, environment services have been hard at work removing bulky waste as part of the free collection service offered to Weaste and Seedley residents during SNAP week.
As well as this, our street cleansing team has been in the area removing any litter and fly tipping. This has resulted in around 20 tonnes of waste being collected.
Once again, I feel this has been a great success working in partnership with the SNAP team members.
Howard Lund
Environmental Co-ordinator, Salford City Council
New age kurling
A game of new age kurling was enjoyed by about 14 people. It was a highly successful and friendly (but competitive) session that was a highlight of the week. The regulars came, plus a couple of new faces.
For just £1 per session this exciting activity is guaranteed to bring out your competitive side in a fun and joyful atmosphere. We even provide tea, coffee and biscuits most weeks for free.
New age kurling is great way to do a bit of light exercise while mixing with other people. If you fancy coming to a future session, please ring me on 0755 443 8577 or just come along to any of the Friday afternoon sessions that start run between 1.30pm and 3.30pm.
Dale Griffiths
Health Improvement team - Claremont and Weaste, NHS Salford
Police activity
To reassure residents and provide a high visibility presence, police community support officers were out in the area where a number of traffic offences were dealt with.
Officers also worked with the tactical firearms unit who arrested a male for being in possession of an offensive weapon. He is currently on bail pending advice on a charging decision from the Crown Prosecution Service.
A joint operation was launched between police and taxi licensing enforcement. Thirty six taxis were spot checked and two taxis were found not to have fire extinguishers and one had inappropriate livery on the vehicle. These offences were corrected immediately and their records endorsed.
In the evening, the mobile police station pulled up at Buile Hill Park next to the WUU2 bus. A large number of youths interacted with police officers and youth workers which seems very popular.
Craig Roberts
Community Beat Sergeant, Greater Manchester Police
Thursday 22 July
Mobile youth bus
The mobile youth bus went to Cemetery Road tonight and met up with two PCSOs. The SMART worker also came out again. It was a very quiet evening with no young people around so we moved the bus to another area where there was a small pocket of young people. A few young people did engage with us on the bus and we gave out information around drugs and alcohol.
Jess Haywood
Senior Youth Work Manager, Salford City Council
Making your neighbourhood safer
Today safer neighbourhood officers were based with the police on Derby Road, where they conducted an anti social behaviour drop in surgery.
The reason for carrying out this drop in was to allow local people the opportunity to discuss, in confidence, any ASB issues that they were experiencing. This included any incidents of hate crime.
In the afternoon, officers spoke to people in the area about SmartWater property marking to help prevent and tackle burglaries. SmartWater is a property marker which can be used to mark anything from lead roofs to a wedding ring. Warning signage and labels are used to ‘advertise’ this fact to would-be criminals, making criminals think twice about carrying out crimes where this system is in operation.
Paul McNeilly
Safer Neighbourhood Champion, Salix Homes
Police activity
Officers have worked with GMPTE inspectors and issued a number of tickets for passengers using public transport without a valid pass.
Officers have worked with the council performing checks on people working to see if they were also claiming benefits. We've also been targeting traffic offenders and have seized a number of uninsured vehicles.
Craig Roberts
Community Beat Sergeant, Greater Manchester Police
Wednesday 21 July
Litter bugs not allowed at St Luke’s CE
St Luke’s CE Primary were shocked about the amount of litter they found in their school grounds. Pupils from Year 5 took part in a litterpick.
The pupils were surprised about all the litter they found under bushes and around the edges of their school field. The class collected over eight bags full of rubbish.
Clare Standish
Environmental Education Officer
Police activity
Two search warrants were executed in New Weaste this morning and a quantity of a category C drug was recovered.
A number of vehicles without insurance have been removed from the street of Weaste by traffic officers.
The roll out of SmartWater property marking continues in flats along Eccles New Road.
Craig Roberts
Community Beat Sergeant, Greater Manchester Police
Multi sports activities
Salford Community Leisure works with local primary schools to deliver curriculum time sports activities and after school sports sessions.
Children from a number of local schools came to St Luke’s CE playing field to take part in some multi-sports activities. The aim of the engagement programme is to making the most of the school field; mix together children from different schools; break down territorial boundaries; whilst offering them a positive activity to help reduce nuisance and anti-social behaviour.
Unfortunately, afternoon’s event was badly affected due to the sudden heavy downpour which totally saturated the school field making it unplayable. Thanks to the kind assistance and co-operation of Kath Partridge, Head of St Luke’s CE we were able to use the school hall.
Hopefully, the rain we have had this week will be the last we see over the summer to a full programme of activities can take place on St Luke’s CE school field.
Tommy Curran
Senior Community Sports Development Officer, Salford Community Leisure
Making your neighbourhood safer
My name is Paul McNeilly and I’m the Safer Neighbourhood Champion for Salix Homes. The Safer Neighbourhood team deal with all complaints about anti social behaviour, noise nuisance and some criminal activity that takes place in our communities.
Today two officers were based with the police at the Weaste Hotel pub where they held an anti social behaviour drop in surgery. The reason for carrying out this drop in was to allow local people the opportunity to discuss, in confidence, any ASB issues that they were experiencing. This included any incidents of hate crime.
A lot of work has previously been carried out in the area over recent months to combat perpetrators of anti social behaviour and hate crime. There weren’t many new reports being made which is hopefully a good sign that it’s working.
Paul McNeilly
Safer Neighbourhood Champion, Salix Homes
Tuesday 20 July
Hanging baskets of Fairbridge
Fairbridge in Greater Manchester work with young people aged 13-25 that other organisations often find difficult to engage - giving them the motivation, self-confidence and skills they need to change their lives.
Today a group of young people who attend our centre on Cemetery Road created 30 hanging baskets for local residents in Weaste. The group chose the flowers, negotiating well with their local garden centre, so that they would not only look good but also last throughout the summer months. They then worked hard to get all the baskets planted up in time for local residents to come and choose a hanging basket.
The group were helped during the afternoon by Marie Backhouse and Michelle Jennings from the local resident association.
Lesley Bates
Weaste Neighbourhood Management team, Salford City Council
Cooking in the community
Project 34 is a supported accommodation project for homeless people in the Weaste area of Salford. We have 27 rooms and cater for both males and females. We have been running a healthy eating course with the local primary care trust where the residents prepare and eat healthy meals. When they asked us here at the project if we would like to get involved with some community projects that were going on in the area, the residents were more than happy to get involved.
The residents that took part in the cooking for the Weaste tea dance group at St Luke’s church hall. Everybody said what a good time they had, meeting and cooking for the people who turned up. They were also proud to be doing something for the community they live in. All the residents that took part from the project have expressed an interest in doing more things like this. Other Project 34 residents have also shown an interest since hearing about the success of the tea dance so let’s hope that more things like this happen again.
Michael Partland
Project 34
Cleaning up the area
Salix Homes work closely with residents and the council's environmental services team to identify areas that could benefit from the removal of bulk waste and rubbish to improve the visible appearance of the neighbourhood. It’s really important that environmental crime, fly tipping and littering is reported to Salix Homes so we are able to implement measures to improve the appearance of the neighbourhood and have good access and use of public open space and to have residents feeling safe and secure throughout the city.
Throughout the day, Salix Homes Rapid Response vehicle visited over 40 streets within the Weaste and Seedley area. Along with cleaning alley ways and ginnels’. Residents were asked to leave their bulk waste on their doorstep or in their gardens for collection. The team were pro-active in their approach and knocked on doors to ask if there was any rubbish they could collect.
Four van loads later and over 1300kg of waste later, a successful day was achieved through working with the local community and our partners.
Nicky Clarke
Cleaner Greener Officer, Salix Homes
Police activity
A Salford male who had stolen a vehicle in Bolton and then driven to Salford and driven off from a petrol station without paying for fuel was arrested as part of SNAP week.
Officers also seized three vehicles in Weaste that had no insurance.
Smart Water property marking continues in City Link Apartments on Eccles New Road.
Craig Roberts
Community Beat Sergeant, Greater Manchester Police
Youth service and police working together
The youth service joined the police on a mobile information unit at The Willows to speak and listen to residents. The Youth Service gave out leaflets on SNAP week and summer holiday activities for young people.
Residents seemed to like the idea of SNAP and what we’re trying to achieve. They found the information on holiday activities very useful.
The weather was damp but that did not put off young people from accessing the mobile unit. They asked about summer trips and used the facilities on the bus. The police gave out some freebies such as key rings, magnetic stickers and pen drives which proved very popular!
The youth service will be out again on Wednesday night in the Eccles New Road and Derby Road area from 6.30pm. Look out for us.
Mark Adjei- Kumi
Area Youth Work Manager - Weaste and Seedley, Salford City Council
Monday 19 July
Mobile youth bus
Tonight the mobile youth bus has been to the Willows car park where there was a large group of younger children, many aged under 11. There was police and PCSO presence and they had also brought there mobile unit out. The young people moved from one bus to another and seemed happy engaging with the local officers.
A SMART worker was also with us providing information and promotional key rings and booklets. Most of the young people were a little too young to be able to do any in depth work around drugs.
There was also some good information sharing between the police and youth service about what we have to offer on our units and also information around areas where young people gather.
Jess Haywood
Senior Youth Work Manager, Salford City Council
Clean up at Seedley Primary
Pupils from Seedley Primary have been doing their bit for the Weaste and Seedley SNAP. Year 4 pupils collected their gloves and litterpickers and set about cleaning up their school field. The pupils found lots of litter ranging from plastic bottles to toys. The school hopes that the local community will follow their example and look after their area and not drop litter.
Clare Standish
Environmental Education Officer
Street youth work
Working with the police and the neighbourhood management team, the youth service were out and about in Weaste and Seedley on Monday evening to engage with young people.
The aim was to reduce anti-social behaviour, crime and nuisance caused by young people using sports and talking to them to challenge negative behaviour and talk about different issues. Examples of issues were centred around sexual health, healthy living, drugs and alcohol and education.
The young people reacted positively to us and it was a worthwhile few hours.
Mark Adjei- Kumi
Area Youth Work Manager - Weaste and Seedley, Salford City Council
Estate walkabout
Salix Homes’ cleaner greener and better neighbourhood teams have been working closely with the New Weaste residents group to identify environmental problems on the estate.
We carried out an estate walkabout with the help of several members of the residents group, two local PCSO’s and Mick Walbank, the neighbourhood manager. Graffiti, fly tipping, litter, rubbish, dog fouling and untidy gardens were identified as a problem. One resident came out to report a tree in her rear garden needs pruning and went on to say “it’s great to see Salix staff out on the estate”.
The problems identified have been reported to the Salix Homes rapid response team, environmental services and other relevant departments for completion.
One garden was particularly overgrown and with residents being unable to maintain it themselves the resident group have got together and decided they will tidy the garden for them.
With ongoing SNAP weeks and monthly estate inspections being carried out it can improve the neighbourhood.
Anne-Marie Royle
Better Neighbourhoods Officer - Weaste and Seedley, Salix Homes
Police activity
The first day of SNAP week and its been a busy one!
A search warrant under the misuse of drugs was executed on Kennedy Road, Weaste. Officers stayed in the area for some time afterwards offering reassurance and answering residents questions.
A Salford PCSO was working with a member of the Tactical Dog Unit when they pursued a vehicle which was suspected to be stolen, a male made off from the vehicle and is still being sought although the vehicle was recovered.
A local man who was wanted by police for a crime in April was arrested as part of SNAP week. The offence was a burglary in a business property.
Craig Roberts
Community Beat Sergeant, Greater Manchester Police
This page was last updated on 28 July 2010
