North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called for a Welsh Government Statement on Community Safety following the publication of a report this week which identifies the absence of a Welsh Government single strategy in this area.
Speaking in this week’s Business Statement, Mr Isherwood, the Welsh Conservative Shadow Secretary for Communities, said:
“I call for a Statement on Community Safety in Wales, following the Auditor General for Wales’s report of that name, launched today. This says, rightly: ‘Community safety relates to people’s sense of personal security and their feelings of safety in relation to where they live, work and spend their leisure time.’
“But it goes on to say: ‘The Welsh Government has no single strategy for community safety and has focussed its activity on delivering the Programme for Government. Whilst all local authorities and the four Police and Crime Commissioners have plans, these are not consistently aligned to ensure the best use of resources and maximise impact and there are no areas where national, regional and local bodies have the same priority. Disjointed planning and poor co-ordination can create a risk of organisations either duplicating activity or no one focussing on the most important issues.’
“And they recommend that you, with the Police and Crime Commissioners and local authorities, ‘improve strategic partnership working by formally creating effective community-safety boards’ to replace the current mechanism. This is clearly important. It’s received, rightly, widespread attention today and it does merit a Welsh Government response to this Assembly before we hear a more detailed response outside it.”
The Leader of the House, Jane Hutt AM, replied; “Community safety in Wales is of paramount importance and the Cabinet Secretary will respond and he will update as appropriate on the current arrangements in terms of Safer Communities, which have served us well in terms of local partnerships.”