Bike thefts and arson attacks in a part of Mansfield have seen a significant decrease since the neighbourhood has been the focus of a crime cutting campaign.

As the UK marks Antisocial Behaviour Awareness Week, new figures are showing the effectiveness of the Safer4All campaign on the Oak Tree estate where bicycle thefts and arsons between October 2022 and March 2023 both saw a 96% reduction compared with April 2022 to September 2022, and motorbike thefts saw an 80% reduction over the same period.

The six-month campaign, which was launched in October last year, aimed to reduce the number of bicycle and motorbike thefts and the number of deliberately set fires, which were specific areas of concern on the estate.

Mansfield District Council made a successful £33,000 bid to the Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Safer4All (Target Hardening) funding.

The council's Community Safety team has since been working with Nottinghamshire Police and Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service to deliver an action plan to cut crime and antisocial behaviour on the Oak Tree Lane estate.

It focused on distributing crime prevention measures, such as good quality bicycle locks, anti-theft kits for motorbikes, and a schools education programme.

The effectiveness of the campaign has been measured against crime figures in the previous six months before the campaign began and against pre-Covid crime figures between April 2017 and March 2020.

Thefts of bicycles

2017-2018 - 6
2018-2019 -1
2019-2020 - 7

1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022 - 17
1 October 2022 to 23 March 2023 - 6

Arsons

Between 1 April 2017 and 31 March 2020, there were an average of 12.33 offences a year in the Oak Tree area.

Between 01 April 2022 and 30 September 2022 there were 23 incidents - a 92% increase on the average of the three years pre-Covid.

Between 1 October 2022 and 26 March 2023, there has been just one incident of arson reported in the Oak Tree area, representing a 96% decrease.

Cllr Angie Jackson, Joint Portfolio Holder for Community Safety, Health and Wellbeing, said: "We are aware that arson is more likely to happen in the summer so comparing the winter period against the summer period should be done with caution.

"We will be watching the figures over the summer carefully when we hope that the new CCTV camera in the worst affected area should act as an effective deterrent.

"However, at least some of this success can be attributed to the increased presence of the fire service, education work carried out in schools and the apprehension of offenders.

"We also recognise that when you are dealing with relatively small figures for the numbers of crimes, the percentage reduction is a large figure which can seem quite dramatic.

"That said, these results still represent a big improvement in crime reduction on Oak Tree and we are really encouraged by the success of this campaign. We hope it has improved the quality of life for residents there and is making the estate a better and safer place to live."

Oak Tree is currently designated a priority neighbourhood for the council, the local Community Safety Partnership and the Neighbourhood Policing Team. These teams are implementing actions to improve the quality of life for residents.

The Safer4All funding is from a pot of £800,000 that the PCC has allocated to support crime prevention initiatives between 2022 and 2025, with £100,000 assigned to each of the seven local authorities and the city council in the county, which equates to £33,300 per area per year.

Nottinghamshire Police and Crime Commissioner Caroline Henry said: “I created the Safer4All fund to allow greater flexibility and resource for partners to work together to tackle crime and antisocial behaviour with targeted projects that can have a real impact on people’s quality of life.

“The way it has been delivered in the Oak Tree area shows it has had an impact and made it a safer place. Increased visibility from police, firefighters and the council’s Community Safety team, combined with crime prevention measures and education for young people has driven down incidents.

“This action shows that we are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with residents and are tackling issues that were causing concern.

“I would urge residents to keep reporting any crime and antisocial behaviour they experience so that partners can continue to understand the issues and put resources in place to deal with them.”

Inspector Kylie Davies, district commander for Mansfield, said: “These kind of offences - and antisocial behaviour in general - can have a very significant impact on people’s quality of life.

"In this regard there is no such thing as a minor or less serious offence. So if somebody’s motorbike is stolen or their bin is set on fire they can expect a very thorough police response.

"Prevention, however, is always better than cure so I am delighted that these measures appear to be paying off.”

Chris Clark, Group Manager of Prevention at Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service said: “The number of deliberate fires we have experienced on the Oak Tree estate in Mansfield has been rising over the years, especially during the summer period, so to see an decrease like this shows that the Safer4All campaign is proving to be a success.

“It has been great working with partner organisations to make our communities safer, and we will continue to do so, to prevent deliberate fires from happening all over the county."

Anyone with information about deliberate fire setting can call FireStoppers anonymously on 0800 169 5558. Anyone experiencing antisocial behaviour in the district can report it on the council website (link opens in new window). In an emergency always call 999.