Agenda item

The cabinet member for community safety & neighbourhoods to present the theme for the meeting.

Councillor Natasha Ennin, cabinet member for community safety and neighbourhoods, presented the motion in the themed debate.

 

Councillor Victor Chamberlain, the opposition spokesperson, responded to the motion and proposed Amendment A.

 

Councillor Victoria Mills arrived at this point.

 

Following debate (Councillors Emily Hickson, Bethan Roberts, David Watson, Richard Leeming, Leo Pollak, Adam Hood, Sam Foster, Emily Tester, Andy Simmons, Jon Hartley, Charlie Smith, Kieron Williams, and Ketzia Harper) Councillor Natasha Ennin responded to the debate.

 

Amendment A was put to the vote and declared to be ­Lost.

 

The motion was put to the vote and declared to be Carried.

 

RESOLVED:

 

Keeping Southwark Safe: Fighting crime and the causes of crime

 

1.  Council Assembly notes:

 

a.  That tackling crime and anti-social behaviour is a top priority for many of our residents.

 

b.  The council’s commitment to making Southwark safer for all.

 

c.  The council’s continued ambitions to work collaboratively with local communities to identify key concerns, target action in hotspot areas, including on our streets and our estates, work to restore trust and confidence in the police, and to invest in prevention.

 

d.  This Labour government’s commitment to 13,000 extra neighbourhood police, visible on the beat, cracking down on anti-social behaviour, and a named, contactable officer in every community.

 

e.  On protecting our public spaces:

 

  i.  The upcoming rollout of new nighttime wardens following a £450,000 investment in Southwark Labour’s budget amendment this year, with new officers patrolling streets and estates from 6pm to 2am.

 

  ii.  The powers to be given to wardens to carry out enforcement, with training from the police allowing them to address and prevent anti-social behaviour.

 

  iii.  The launch of the council’s £2m Anti-Social Behaviour Task Force, with 100 officers recruited to work on tackling crime and antisocial behaviour.

 

  iv.  The pilots to improve safety in our parks developed with friends of parks, the wider community, the metropolitan police service and council to monitor impact of efforts to deter anti-social behaviour (ASB) and crime in a named park.

 

  v.  The £3 million investment in upgrading existing CCTV across our borough.

 

  vi.  The upgrading of over 2,800 street lights since 2022, and ambitions to upgrade all our street lights by 2026, which are on track.

 

  vii.  The Home Secretary’s initiative to keep streets safe this summer, with new local ASB Action Plans and a Summer Surge Delivery Plans.

 

  viii.  The Council’s enforcement cracking down on fly-tipping, with fees increased from £400 to £1,000 and new powers from the Labour government for the police to identify, seize and crush vehicles of waste criminals.

 

f.  On working to improve public trust in the police:

 

  i.  The successful launch of the Southwark Policing Oversight Board, the first of its kind in London, which puts residents at the heart of improving public trust and confidence in the Metropolitan Police by increasing accountability and transparency and allowing residents to share their concerns.

 

  ii.  This council’s initiative to bring young people in to advise on Stop and Search, helping to train over 100 police officers to meet the highest standards.

 

  iii.  This Labour government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee, which includes measures that will put named and contactable officers back in our neighbourhoods, with a 50% increase in community police officers by 2029.

 

g.  Local councillors are fighting to save a police hub in Rotherhithe:

 

  i.  That despite this guarantee, Bermondsey Safer Neighbourhood Teams have vacated their base at Seven Islands Leisure Centre.

 

  ii.  That the council alongside British Land have offered the Borough Commander several potential sites for a dedicated police hub.

 

  iii.  That all of these sites have been declined by the Borough Commander.

 

  iv.  That the Safer Neighbourhood Teams are now based at Southwark Police Station which is further than the Met Police’s commitment of no more than twenty minute journey for local based policing.

 

  v.  Further notes the work of the Leader of the Council, the Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Neighbourhoods and the Rotherhithe Ward councillors in lobbying the Assistant Commissioner of the Met Police and the Borough Commander to actively engage in finding a suitable location for a police hub.

 

  vi.  The petition set up by the Rotherhithe Ward councillors that has gained local support.

 

h.  Tackling violence against women and girls:

 

  i.  Southwark now has 20 Safe Havens and 58 Safe Spaces where any resident who feels unsafe, particularly women, can drop in for support and advice.

 

  ii.  The council’s ‘Through Her Eyes’ campaign has been shown in over 1,000 schools, and garnered over 1 million views across various social media platforms, raising awareness amongst men and boys to change their attitudes towards women and girls.

 

  iii.  This council has dedicated resources to extend work being done to improve women’s safety at night – with £150,000 for training, spiking kits, and accelerating the rates of signups to the Women’s Nighttime Safety Charter.

 

  iv.  The government’s Crime and Policing Bill, when introduced, will criminalise the taking or recording of intimate images or videos without consent.

 

i.  Notes and supports Women’s Aid’s Motion for Change: Together against violence towards women and girls (VAWG):

 

  i.  Welcoming Labour’s commitment to halve VAWG in the next decade.

 

  ii.  Noting that Labour’s bold ambition cannot be realised by national government alone - we need action from local councillors, council leaders and Police and Crime Commissioners to turn the tide on VAWG in our local communities.

 

  iii.  Agrees that VAWG services should meet the needs of all survivors, including the most marginalised survivors.

 

j.  Resident engagement in hotspot areas:

 

  i.  During national ASB awareness week, with the council and partners holding a range of events to encourage reporting and to highlight support available to victims and witnesses of ASB and crime.

 

  ii.  With upcoming town centre engagement days to be held in Camberwell, Elephant and Castle, Rye Lane and Borough High Street, with information stalls included materials on town centre action plans, business crime prevention, reporting and opportunity to meet community wardens and local police officers.

 

  iii.  The six days of action in Elephant and Castle, which included robbery and VAWG operations to deter phone snatches and to promote and increase signups to the London nighttime women’s safety charter.

 

  iv.  The Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Neighbourhoods, Councillor Natasha Ennin, has been regularly visiting hotspot areas, listening to residents, identifying key issues and acting to prevent crime and antisocial behaviour.

 

k.  Prevention:

 

  i.  Welcomes the government’s announcement that rough sleeping will be decriminalised for the first time since the Vagrancy Act 1824, to which Emma Haddad, Chief Executive of St Mungo’s, said: “The repeal of the Vagrancy Act, which criminalises rough sleeping, cannot come soon enough… The answer is not to criminalise people for living on the streets but instead to focus on tackling the health, housing and wider societal issues that are causing homelessness in the first place.”

 

  ii.  The appointment of a new Rough Sleeper Coordinator to help progress toward the council’s ambitions to end rough sleeping.

 

  iii.  Increasing youth engagement, with street-based outreach from youth advisors on healthy relationships and offers of youth activities across the borough, to act as diversion to young people at early risk of committing ASB or crime during the summer holidays. This work is supported by our Southwark Violence Reduction Unit in partnership with our local My Endz provider Active Communities Network.

 

  iv.  New youth engagement days to ensure the youth voice is heard within our residents’ neighbourhoods and to encourage reporting in areas that they feel are unsafe, facilitated and supported by local voluntary organisations working with young people in each neighbourhood.

 

  v.  Council Assembly supports Labour’s plans to intervene earlier to stop young people being drawn into crime, creating a new Young Futures programme with a network of hubs reaching every community.

 

2.  This council resolves to:

 

a.  Take action on the results of the Women’s Safety Survey 2025:

 

  i.  Improve areas in which women have reported feeling unsafe including visual audits of locations of concern to make improvements to the public realm. 

 

  ii.  Hold information sessions across the borough to provide women with practical tools to increase feelings of safety at night including, personal safety alarms, anti-spiking kits and torches.

 

  iii.  Improve the council’s communications to ensure that women and anyone who feels unsafe in borough knows where safe spaces are to get support.

 

b.  Explore the possibility of appointing a councillor as a VAWG Champion to ensure council services and actions in preventing violence against women and girls are as comprehensive and effective as possible.

 

c.  Continue to roll out better lighting and CCTV to make streets, parks and estates safer, to deter crime and continue to help the police catch criminals.

 

d.  Open a Women’s Safety Centre to provide services to support women facing violence and domestic abuse.

 

e.  Establish safe routes to school for our children and young people, with increased policing, CCTV support and other means to deter crime and protect children.

 

f.  Help ensure a policing presence is maintained in Rotherhithe by:

 

  i.  Asking cabinet to work with the GLA Police and Crime Committee and our London Assembly Member, Marina Ahmad, to hold the police to account.

 

  ii.  Continuing to work with the police to identify a suitable site within 20 minutes’ walk of Rotherhithe.

 

  iii.  Calling on the Borough Commander to be open and transparent about the reasons for refusing space for a temporary police hub.