POLICE, City of York Council, health workers and firefighters are joining together in a bid to blitz antisocial behaviour and crime hotspots in the city.

A multi-agency crime initiative, led by Safer York Partnership, is being launched on Tuesday – and tough targets have been set in a bid to drastically drive down crime on York’s streets.

Police say they have identified the top priority as antisocial behaviour, as well as rising concerns on alcohol, drugs, road safety, burglary and vehicle crime – and have set a three-year action plan to crack them.

North Yorkshire police, the Primary Care Trust (PCT), North Yorkshire Fire & Rescue service, York Safer Neighbourhoods Policing Teams and City of York Council will be collaborating in the scheme.

The chairman of Safer York Partnership, Chief Superintendent Iain Spittal said: “Safer York Partnership achieved a 38 per cent reduction in crime and disorder over the last three years, making it one of the most successful crime and disorder reduction partnerships in the Yorkshire and Humber region. However, we know that we can’t become complacent and therefore this new strategy will enable us to refocus our resources and our delivery groups to achieve even greater reductions.”

Yorks’s director of neighbourhood services, Terry Collins, said that anti-social behaviour was the issue of “greatest concern” across the city.

“Antisocial behaviour affects all agencies responsible for community safety in the city,” he said. “It impacts on quality of life for residents and the results, such as graffiti, littering and vandalism are costly to repair.

“City of York Council, in partnership with the police and the other agencies that make up Safer York Partnership will be really focusing on reducing anti-social behaviour and making our neighbourhoods cleaner and safer. “A major area of concern for us is graffiti. This is a growing problem that costs the council approximately £100,000 to remove every year. As part of the strategy, we have developed a graffiti website that will hopefully help us to identify those responsible and result in some convictions.”

As part of the launch event, a Community Safety Market will take place in Parliament Street from 9.30am to 4.30pm on Tuesday, where members of the public can receive advice and talk to community safety experts on how best to secure their property, report incidents and help to reduce crime and disorder in their neighbourhood.

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