Junior PCSOs get recognition

On March 11 I attended the Royal National Hotel in London for the second Connecting People awards. It is a prestigous event, attended by over 550 guests, and organised by Northern, Midlands and Southern Housing magazines in conjunction with TPAS, and rewards tenants and people who work in communities across England.

I attended with Swaythling Housing Association who submitted the Junior PCSO scheme for the awards. Swaythling supported us in the first sheme and Lumpy lane, Northam, as they are the landlord and this was the first scheme of its type when PCSO Mark Reynolds started it in October 2007. A month later PCSO Jade Missen started a scheme in Chapel, and Swaything again helped and supported the scheme. Swaythling have continued their involvement and supported the schemes financially on events like the Junior PCSO Xmas parties.

There were over 100 submissions for the awards in our category of community involvement and we were chosen as one of the five nominations shortlisted for the awards ceremony in London. Unfortunately we did not win, but to be in the final five was a great achievement. PCSO Mark Reynolds and PCSO Fiona Oates (who now runs the Chapel scheme) came with me and Swaythling were represented by Steph Binks, Cita jagot and Jade Missen, who, unfortunately for my team, went to work for Swaythling as their development officer following her excellent work in Chapel as a PCSO. Swaythling have since started further schemes in one of their developments in Amesbury, and of course within the Constabulary the schemes are spreading Junior PCSOs now in Gosport, Aldershot and other areas.

We were not the only nomination from Southampton, indeed Northam. Carl Collins, who is the Chair of the Northam Tenants and Residents Association was nominated in the Tenant of the Year category for his great work in Northam. Unfortunately for Carl, he was not selected as a winner either, however its tremendous that of the two nominations from Southampton, both involved Northam.

On the enforcement front, we are still plugging away at cycling on the pavement tickets and parking obstructions in Northam Estate, Golden grove and Deanery Estate. PC Phil Warwick has had a good result with the obstruction on Northam. It has been identified that staff from businesses in Princes St regularly park on the estate, using up valuable spaces and causing concern to residents and Phil has been working with parking services of the council who are negociating a deal with the company for an annual discounted parking rate at the local SCC car park, so that may ease some of the problems.

Finally, meetings wise this week, I atteded a Safety in the Parks meeting on Thursday. This is a group that meets every three months to discuss park security. Unfortunately the parks do get a bad name at times, but with basic security, like not walking through there alone, tha parks are as safe as the streets. A lot of work has been completed at Hoglands Park with extra lighting on the main thoroughfares and the pavillions have been renovated and are used as youth venues severas evenings a week now. During the school holiday periods from Easter to October, we have a police gazebo near the skate board park for the first few days of the holidays to talk to youngsters about basic security, not leaving items on display, unnattended bags etc, as well as post coding bikes, boards and mobiles. This seems to work quite well and we have City patrol and other agencies to attend aswell.