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Cadley and Greyfriars PACT partnership
Annual General Meeting.
September 6th 2006
Chairman’s report.
This is only a short report as it really only officially covers the period since December last when the constitution was adopted and approved.
The PACT meetings have been held every month (except August ) with a steady attendance of both regular members and also people wishing to bring specific issues to our notice. Whilst we would like to see far more people in attendance, I do wish to pay tribute to our regular attendees. Especial thanks are due to all Executive Members and our secretary Angela Turner and Treasurer Cllr Geoff Driver. Also thanks to this school for its hospitality and support for our work.
We have always had first class input from our Police Community Beat Manager, PC Iain Shrager and from PCSO Neil Higgins and from many other officers including local inspectors and the Superintendent Mike Barton. They always keep us in the picture and take on board local concerns across a wide spectrum, usually with a very positive outcome. One highlight of our PACT has been our Crime Reports Communication Network. This has grown throughout the year and now has approaching 200 households receiving a weekly report on incidents. I know that this has been held up as a model to other PACTs in Preston. Please invite anyone you know to get onto our distribution list.
We have had several speakers to explain the work of their organisation. From Larches and Savick PACT we got help in preparing and taking on a Constitution, which has already had benefits in Grants to some of our work. We have also affiliated to Community Network and to the Preston Council for Voluntary Service giving us access to their training, funder-finding and advice services. We have also had support and advice from our close links to the growing number of Neighbourhood Watch groups.
Our Youth Activities Group has done some great work on Taster Days and other Youth activities, which Neil and Iain regularly outline. Thanks to those who have given time and effort to this really important work.
The executive has met to look at priorities but there has been a move to get Executive Meetings to link with monthly PACT to reduce the need for member’s turnouts. We know that this is a task we have to address now. I do wish to thank all our Executive Members and hope they will be willing to continue in office.
This area is better for the work we do and I hope that we shall have even more influence in making our part of Preston safer, quieter and more pleasant to live in.
A Hackett.
Report from police. Cadley/Greyfriars AGM 2006
I too feel that we have achieved a lot through the Cadley/Greyfriars PACT partnership during the last year. We have certainly come a long way from very humble beginnings to achieve an organised, functional and productive group, who work very hard to improve the area as a whole.
We have had some very tangible results on issues that have been raised at the meetings during the year. Some problems have been eradicated completely, whilst others, which are more long-term issues, are still being resolved.
We found from the offset that some problems, whilst requiring the group’s expertise, also required money. We had none! To this end, the PACT panel was constituted, giving us access to numerous funding streams. We have submitted several bids over the year, one was successful (mosquito unit coming soon), two were not, and two are still pending.
The e-mail report has grown from the initial 20 or so PACT panel members, to over 200 in number altogether. This is a huge achievement and enables us to communicate events, crime information, achievements and meeting details at the touch of a button. Keep in mind also, that the majority of these readers were initially complainants to the police, whose quality of life had been affected due to a recurring problem or an anti-social incident. Issues having been dealt with, most are now our allies!
I have also secured the services of Mission Vision, a drugs and alcohol talk group, consisting of reformed and reforming users. They go into the two secondary schools on our area under supervision, to warn our up and coming teenagers about the health dangers of drug and alcohol use, and the anti-social issues created by it. This is a very hard-hitting project that has proved so successful that it is now held at nearly every school in the Preston area.
The choices talks continue also in the secondary schools, but targeted at a younger age group to educate them on how to avoid causing anti-social behaviour and the consequences if they do. It also contains some information on drugs and alcohol education, but no-where near as hard-line as the Mission Vision talks due to the younger target audience.
These last two items, along with the other work we are doing, should reduce future anti-social behaviour and criminal damage. The regular targeted patrols and other projects we have ongoing, should also reduce current problems and crime trends.
Finally, I would like to say that I have enjoyed being the Police Officer responsible for the area over the last 18 months. I have no plans to move on at this time, and hope to continue to work with you for several years to come.
PC 2615 Iain Shrager
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Lea Ribbleton Town Centre Riversway Preston Rural East Preston Rural North
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