City safety scheme cuts bad behaviour

Banning cars from large parts of a Black Country city centre has had a dramatic impact on rowdy behaviour, slashing it by nearly 50 per cent, police claimed today.

West Midlands Police figures show that over the first two weekends of the Keep It Safe campaign, the number of anti-social behaviour incidents officers dealt with in Wolverhampton reduced by almost half on the previous year. The initiative could be copied by towns across the Black Country and Staffordshire in future years.

There were 22 incidents of anti-social behaviour in the city centre over the weekends of December 5 and December 12, compared to 41 over the same period in 2008. In 2007, prior to the campaign, the figure was 91.

The Keep It Safe initiative was launched last year, but this is the first year city centre streets have been sealed off to cars at night.

The campaign has seen extra city centre police patrols, greater enforcement activity at licensed premises, safety messages being beamed onto the sides of buildings and 50,000 anti-drink spiking 'spikies' given away in pubs and clubs.

The public conveniences at the corner of Queen Square and Victoria Street have also been converted into a temporary medical centre to ease the pressure on the ambulance service.

Yellow signs are dotted all over the city centre to direct people to the medical centre, taxi ranks and toilets.

Sergeant Steve Edwards, from Wolverhampton City Centre neighbourhood team, said: "The figures from the first few weekends show that anti-social behaviour was noticeably down, which is a good indicator that the campaign is making a positive difference."

Keep it Safe was today praised by the Bishop of Wolverhampton, the Rt Rev Clive Gregory, who spent an evening watching the work of street pastors and others involved in the initiative.