Hulme Respect slashes crime by 66 per cent

The Hulme respect action week has led to an impressive fall in crime and a 75 percent drop in anti social behaviour.

Throughout the week, which ran from 15- 22 October, there were just nine crimes compared to 24 during the same week in 2006, and anti social behaviour was down from 34 incidents to 9.

The Respect Action Weeks are a joint approach - between Manchester City Council, Greater Manchester Police and other partners, to help reduce crime, tackle anti social behaviour and to support local residents in helping to improve their environment.

A series of pilot respect weeks, run earlier in the year, proved so successful that the scheme is now being rolled out across fifteen wards throughout Manchester. During the week police, council officers, the DVLA, British Gas and dozens of other agencies target an area to tackle a range of criminal activities and anti social behaviour from drug dealing to fiddling the gas meter.

Manchester City Council's deputy leader, Jim Battle said: "All the respect weeks have been successful in reducing crime and anti social behaviour and in Hulme we have had exceptional results. Its clear that working closely with residents is one of the ways forward to improving neighbourhoods."

Residents in Hulme had raised concerns about parking and inconsiderate driving. They were also worried about anti social behaviour including the illegal use of off-road bikes.

During Respect Action Week officers from Greater Manchester Police and the DVLA scanned over 2,100 vehicles using the automated number plate recognition system. Nine vehicles were seized.

The Youth Contact team worked with young people aged between 13 - 19, organising a range of projects and diversionary activities.

Greater Manchester Police and local housing associations visited over 1100 properties to speak to residents about a range of issues including off-road bikes, youth nuisance, fly tipping and abandoned vehicles. Greater Manchester Fire Service carried out 109 home fire risk assessments, the mobile cleaning service cleared 12 sites of graffiti, British Gas discovered over £1,000 of fraud, TV licensing visited 183 homes and park wardens and the street environment manager organized a clean-up day in St Georges Park.

Media contact:

Sally Wheatman, tel: 0161 234 4045