Above this are portraits of William James, Lord Pirrie, who was Lord Mayor of Belfast in 1886, one hundred years before me, and as Chairman of Harland and Wolff Shipyard built both the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic. We were both reared in the little village of Conlig, near Bangor. At his side is Margaret, Lady Pirrie, who was so beloved by the Citizens of Belfast, because of her contribution to the Royal Victoria Hospital and the real person behind the throne. You must remember there were many injuries sustained by men working in the Shipyard. Between them is the towering figure of Edward Harland himself and above the door whence you entered, the first Marquis of Dufferin and Ava, from Clandeboye outside Bangor.
I would emphasise how much we welcome the opportunity to be involved in shaping this important strategy, which aims to “Build Safer, Shared and Confident Communities” It is great to see a good turn-out here this evening from the people of Belfast which shows the importance that community safety plays in the lives of our residents. Hopefully tonight will allow you to feed into this new community safety strategy and highlight concerns or priorities you may have.
Belfast City Council is supportive of working in the field of community safety and since 2004 has played leadership role in developing frontline services to reduce antisocial behaviour and the fear of crime. It is through the Belfast Community Safety Partnership (led by Belfast City Council) that we deliver the majority of our projects which are delivered throughout Belfast and over the past 7 years we have been committed to working in local communities, with local people to tackle community safety issues.
The Belfast Community Safety Partnership is made up of a number of organisations including: PSNI, Housing Executive, Department of Justice, Youth Justice Agency, Probation Board, Belfast City Centre Management, Belfast Trust and others.
To date various plans have been implemented by the Belfast Community Safety Partnership and we are currently developing our latest Safer Belfast HoldingPlan 11/12 which has the following vision; “To Help create safer, shared and confident communities, by working in partnership to address crime, fear of crime and Antisocial behaviour” Our Four Themes for 11/12 are antisocial behaviour, hate crime & cohesion, alcohol & substance misuse and feeling safer.To put this in context a small example of projects (27 in total) that we will be delivering are as follows;
Small Grants – In 2010 we awarded 68 small grants of up to £1,000 to community groups to support community safety initiatives;
Youth Outreach – We provide support to young people (disaffected youth) throughout Belfast;
Community Safety Wardens – Our wardens are currently deployed in New Lodge (North), St James (South), University area (South), Ligoneil (North);
Joint Enforcement – At weekends Council officers and PSNI work in local communities tackling underage and on street drinking;
Young peoples Awards – On 3 march we will host our annual youth awards event for young people who are making a positive contribution to tackling community safety in their area;
Community Engagement Principle – We endeavour to put communities at the heart of our work and through local Antisocial Behaviour officers and Community Safety Coordinators (North, South, East, West) we work closely with local community groups and members of the public to tackle community safety related issues.
At this point, I would like to pass on thanks to the Department of Justice who have been funding these projects over the past number of years and hopefully will continue to do so.
As Chairman of Health and Environmental Services I would also like to acknowledge the leadership of our Director Suzanne Wylie, who is with us tonight. Belfast City Council is committed to this work and the residents of Belfast in our recent MORI survey put community safety issue as their number one priority. This is reflected in the support that BCC gives to support this work and in general we do the following;
• Lead the Belfast Community Safety Partnership;
• Show civic leadership through our elected members and council officers in addressing local issues;
• Recruiting relevant staff required to implement initiatives through our Community Safety Team;
• Investing heavily in many projects including our Alleygates, Community Safety wardens.
As a local Councillor I can assure you that despite the tough economic times we are facing that BCC will do everything we can to improve the safety of all those who live, work and socialise in Belfast City. As some of you already know there will be a merger of Belfast Community Safety Partnership (BCSP) and Belfast District Policing Partnership (BDPP). These two functions will be merging over the coming months into a new single partnership which will support the new Justice Bill currently being developed by the Minister for Justice and his team.
We hope that this partnership will enable us to continue to work with local communities and deliver frontline services across our City. I would just like to finish of by saying that I hope you enjoy tonight’s event and in particular the group work which will allow you to have an input into this consultation. We have all a right to belong here, a right to be heard here and a right to be free…free fom violence, free from suspicion and free from fear. I believe that this consultation will help create the conditions by which the community will grow strong.
Thanks for Listening.