Continuing the cycle of Respect

23 January 2007

Southend is celebrating being named as one of the Government’s Respect Action Areas.

In an announcement made on Monday 22nd January, the borough of Southend-on-Sea was named as one of 40 Respect action areas across the country.

Using Southend as a launchpad for the national Respect agenda, local dignitaries and members of the community yesterday joined Tessa Jowell, Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, during a jam packed day of activites.

The Respect Action Area status will bring additional funding for the town to tackle local issues, with an ongoing aim of encouraging everyone to respect each other, thus building a safer and more tolerant society.

Southend has been proactively working towards implementing the Respect Action Plan since January 2006 and the hard work of the town’s Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) and their enthusiasm to make a difference has led to the borough now becoming an official Action Area.

The Respect drive is a cross-Government strategy to tackle bad behaviour and nurture good - and so help create the modern culture of respect. Here in Southend, there has been an awareness of these issues for some time and the CDRP has been looking at practical solutions to deal with them. Recent moves have including the introduction of temporary street urinals on Friday and Saturday nights in the town centre to stop revellers urinating on buildings and other vulnerable surfaces. There was also great success during a month-long project in September 2006 aimed at tackling criminal damage in Shoeburyness.

The town played host to a number of events to celebrate the launch of Respect. Representatives from the CDRP joined Tessa Jowell in Southend High Street for a balloon launch (kindly arranged by WOW balloons) to mark the start of the special day.

Students from South East Essex College’s Media & Performing Arts department added entertainment and flair to the event through their street theatre routines. Ex-professional ice dancer Vicky Roberts also showed her skills on the outdoor rink, courtesy of Cascade Ice.

Tessa Jowell, along with the CDRP representatives, then made their way to South East Essex College in Luker Road where the Minister took part in a ‘meet and greet’ session with local residents before leaving to return to London.

However the celebrations continued in the High Street until 1pm, throughout which time short surveys were carried out with passers-by to gauge, in a snapshot, the thoughts and opinions of people who live in, work in and visit Southend about anti-social behaviour and nuisance in the town. Local CDRP representatives, including Ch Supt Dave Folkard - the Divisional Commander for the South Eastern Division of Essex Police - helped conduct the surveys, taking the opportunity to chat to passers-by about the issues that affect them. The same survey will be carried out in a year’s time – hopefully by when the Respect agenda will have had a notable impression on the way local people view such issues.

Things hotted up later in the afternoon, as the launch moved to Chinnery’s on Southend Seafront for ‘RESPECT ROCKS’ – a rock concert involving young local bands which was kicked off by Southend United’s Spencer Prior. Some of the bands taking part had written new songs on the subject of Respect – to be performed for the very first time in public at this concert.

Also running throughout the day at schools from across Southend is a Respect poster challenge. The schools were given the task at the start of the day to discuss the issue of ‘Respect’ and what it means to them. They then submitted a poster (either by individual pupils or a class effort) summarising their thoughts, to the Civic Centre at the end of the day.

The winning schools in each age group will receive a visit from CDRP representatives, along with a cheque for £250 to use for projects to promote Respect in their schools and local communities.

Simon Ford, the CDRP Manager, says: “It is extremely pleasing that Southend will receive extra funding to deal with the important issue of respect. Funding of such an issue would previously have been seen as an unaffordable luxury but we are confident that by promoting respect at every level, we will soon see knock on effect this will have on the community and anti-social behaviour as a whole. The aim in the long term is for anti-social behaviour to be rare and tackled effectively – which, if successful would have the effect of saving the town money in other areas such as the cleaning up of graffiti and litter.”

Superintendent Maurice Mason, of Essex Police’s South Eastern Division and current chair of the CDRP said: “Southend was recently identified as the safest large town in the UK. Since April 2006, we have seen a 12% reduction in crime and we are now bringing more offenders to justice than ever before. Southend has been chosen as Respect Action Area thanks to the outstanding work being carried out by local agencies with the support of the community itself. I am delighted that we will be receiving financial support from the Respect agenda, part of which we hope to use to really focus some policing resources on community-based projects.”

Anita McGinley, manager of SMAART (Southend Multi-Agency Anti Social Behaviour Response Team), said: “We have secured our status as a Respect action area purely by proving to the Government that the CDRP in Southend are wholeheartedly committed to positively dealing with inconsiderate and disrespectful behaviour. We will be using the funding we receive wisely and will look to involve members of the local community at every stage. All ideas and suggestions will be welcomed so if can think of ways to promote Respect – please get in touch!”

Carol Compton, head of Southend’s Youth Offending Service, said: “In order for young people to respect their community, they need to feel part of a community. In Southend, we have worked hard to bridge the generation gap, bringing young and old together to tackle issues that affect their neighbourhoods.”

Members of the public should send their ideas to Anita McGinley, SMAART, Westcliff Police Station, Claremont Rd, Westcliff-on-sea, SS0 7DX, call 01702 423504 or email: respect@southend.gov.uk

Contact details

For more information please call the Media and Communications Team on 01702 534376 or email media@southend.gov.uk