Community wardens

Southwark's community warden scheme provides a visible reassurance for the community. Our newly structured service consists of 49 uniformed staff, based across Southwark, with teams located in three town centres Elephant and Castle, Camberwell Green and Peckham.

The service also includes:

• Borough wide response team who respond to emergencies and planned events
• Problem solving team who work with other services in specific areas for a dedicated period of time tackling key issues around crime and antisocial behaviour
• The Better Bankside team funded jointly by the council and the local Business Improvement District has a focus in the north of the borough close to the river
• There are also parks liaison officers focusing on safety within Burgess Park, Southwark Park, Peckham Rye and Dulwich Park

The CCTV team play a vital role in crime prevention and detection as well as raising public confidence and feelings of safety.

Reducing crime and antisocial behaviour

Community wardens provide a highly visible, reassuring presence, which helps to reduce crime and antisocial behaviour. The wardens also tackle antisocial behaviour through education, community engagement and working closely with officers from the council, the Metropolitan Police and the London Fire Brigade to create a safer borough.

Reducing environmental crime

Wardens help to improve the environment by identifying and reporting litter, graffiti, fly tipping and abandoned vehicles to the council's cleansing services. The monitoring of street and estate cleaning helps improve the appearance of the area and discourages further crime and ASB. Wardens are empowered to issue fixed penalty notices for littering, fly tipping and dog fouling.

Building links in the community

Wardens play an important role in the community by working with schools, and by helping to organise community or sporting events. They also have a role in helping vulnerable members of the community, such as homeless people or isolated residents. Wardens aim to build closer communities by making local people feel more at ease in the area in which they live.