Southwark project voted best in London in national crime fighting awards
Published 6 July 2010
A major community safety project in Southwark, which lead to one of London's first ever ASBOs on gang members, has been recognised as the best in London, and has been shortlisted for an award.
Every year the Home Office hold their Tilley Awards, which were set up 12 years ago to recognise innovative crime fighting projects.
The regional winners have been announced and the winner of the London category is Southwark's "Talking the hardest: Taking on Peckham's gang culture."
The project resulted in a drop in recorded crime in the target area and saw confidence among business owners and young people rise.
Cllr John Friary, cabinet member for community safety at Southwark Council said: "It's great that this project is being recognised on a national level, and has beaten competition from across London to win the London category. Our work on tackling antisocial behaviour is a key part of our pledge to the residents of the borough and we're determined to continue with this good work."
Further information
Talking the hardest: Taking on Peckham's gang culture" - the project
In December 2009 seven antisocial behaviour orders (ASBOs) were successfully obtained by Southwark Council and the police, in a ground breaking approach to tackle groups causing serious nuisance, threats and intimidation to the local community.
It was one of the first in London to be served on a group of young people at the same time. The order stipulates that they each are barred from loitering with two or more people in any public place in Southwark, and from using threatening or offensive language in any location in the borough. The seven were found to have acted in a persistently intimidating, threatening and antisocial manner in the neighbourhood over a considerable period of time.
The serving of the ASBO represented the culmination of over a year's work by the council's anti social behaviour unit. More can be found out about their work on the tackling antisocial behaviour pages.
The Tilleys
The Tilley awards were set up 12 years ago to recognise innovative crime fighting projects where police, local community safety agencies and the public are successfully working together to identify and tackle local crime problems. More than 110 projects entered this year's awards
The 11 national finalists involve projects that have slashed youth violence and disorder, reduced distraction burglary, tackled antisocial behaviour and saved thousands of pounds by successfully reducing theft in their areas.
