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The creation of a travelling youth activities van dedicated to Haverhill to solve an emerging gang problem is up for a county award next week.

Safer Neighbourhood Teams from across Suffolk are to be recognised for their successful problem-solving and commitment to delivering a high standard of service to the public at an awards ceremony on Monday.

Six schemes have been short-listed and they include the work to set up the On The Spot van which searches out places where groups of young people gather and provides them with something to do.

These six finalists will be presenting their projects to the attendees on the day - officers and partner agencies who will decide the winner through the use of an electronic voting system to
choose the most effective project.

The problem facing Haverhill's Safer Neighbourhood Team was an increase in anti-social behaviour and community tension identified by local businesses, schools and residents.

This had led to an increase of reported incidents and intelligence identified an emerging gang of youths within Haverhill. The group contained approximately 60 youths that called themselves The Pinkies.

CCTV footage also supported this and local businesses reported an increase in the youths causing intimidation to their customers.

An anti-social behaviour case conference was called with partners and Operation Staysafe was implemented. This involved a multi-agency
approach to identify the youths in the group.

Officers and other agencies worked closely with the CCTV operators and this led to a number
of key individuals being quickly identified to enable educational and enforcement work to be carried out to disperse the emerging group.

Parents of those identified were invited to watch the footage with the police, which had a very positive effect.

Funding from the Community Safety Partnership was provided to purchase the ‘On The Spot’ van. It is staffed by youth workers who use it to engage with and occupy local young people through mixing decks, gaming consoles, televisions and the internet.

The tactics employed successfully dispersed the group and there was an immediate decrease in reports of anti-social behaviour, reported incidents and community tension within Haverhill.