The Home Office led ‘Clear Hold Build’ strategy, the first of its kind in North Yorkshire, aims to drive crime out of the Clifton area of York while improving life for residents.
North Yorkshire Police and City of York Council staged a launch event on Monday (March 11) at York Guildhall, which included community groups, local councillors, neighbouring police forces and educators.
Speakers included members of national serious and organised crime units, local detectives, council officers, communities charity St Giles Trust and local voluntary organisations.
The initial stage is designed to clear out those causing crime and misery, from low level anti-social behaviour to more serious crime such as drug dealing and robbery.
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The second stage aims to take a hold over the area to prevent any further problems developing.
The final stage is the build stage, which the force said will see officers and partners work with the council and the local community in Clifton to build resilience for the area, so it is less susceptible to criminal activity in the future.
Reported crimes, the impact of serious organised crime, police intelligence and the severity of crime were included as factors when selecting the Clifton area for the strategy.
In January of this year North Yorkshire Police was called to Clifton on 59 occasions, either making arrests, seizing property, or conducting searches of addresses which were linked to drugs.
Assistant chief constable Catherine Clarke said: “This initiative aims to tackle everything from low level crime right-up to serious and organised crime.
“Effective prevention alongside enforcement is key to the success of the Clear Hold Build strategy.
“We all have our part to play and together we can make a difference.
“This national project provides us with a significant opportunity to implement positive change on a local level in Clifton.”
She added that the strategy sought to ‘claim Clifton back’ from organised crime groups and said there was evidence of ‘county lines’ operating in the area.
County lines is where illegal drugs are transported from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries, usually by children or vulnerable people who are coerced into crime by gangs.
The force said the community was uniting under the strapline of “Connecting Clifton” to make the area a more prosperous place to live, work and visit.
Pauline Stuchfield, director of customer and communities at City of York Council, said the council has assigned officers to monitor progress in Clifton around anti-social behaviour, crime, violence against women and girls, health and wellbeing, infrastructure, drugs and alcohol.
Local school children from Clifton Green Primary School have designed a logo for the Connecting Clifton Partnership.
The audience heard from pupils from Year 1 to 6 speaking about what they liked and disliked about living in Clifton and ideas to make it a better place.
Clifton Green head teacher Nicola Jones said: “The children have some really exciting ideas about how we can work together to improve our environment, facilities and opportunities and hopefully the various partners involved will be able to bring some of this to life.”
