Concerns over soaring rates of violent and sexual attacks in Gloucester
The City Council is being asked to do more to make people safe
Soaring rates of violent and sexual attacks in Gloucester have sparked calls for the council to do more to make the city safer.
The crime rate in the city has increased over recent years with more than 6,300 violent and sexual offences recorded in 2021.
And opposition councillors at Gloucester City Council have called on the authority to do more to make the city safer.
As of 2023, the crime rate in Gloucester is 48% higher than the South West and 14% higher than the England, Wales and Northern Ireland overall figure according to CrimeRate UK’s figures.
Councillor Alastair Chambers (I, Matson, Robinswood and White City) included these figures in a question he put to council chiefs at a recent meeting at North Warehouse. He said the most common crimes in Gloucester are violence and sexual offences, with 6,384 offences during 2021, giving a crime rate of 43.
“This is 34% higher than 2020’s figure of 4,757 offences and a difference of 11.03 from 2020’s crime rate of 32. What is the city council going to do to make our city safer against violence and sexual offences and does the cabinet member agree that the figures are very disappointing for Gloucester?”
Communities and neighbourhoods cabinet member Raymond Padilla (C, Matson, Robinswood and White City) explained the council is working collaboratively with Gloucestershire Constabulary. He explained how Gloucestershire Constabulary have made improvements to the recording of crime and said this is why the figures have increased.
“The robust mechanisms introduced all work towards ensuring all crime reported to the police is correctly recorded. The work has understandably seen an increase in crime recording which is welcomed by the constabulary.
“The increase is indicative of the national picture. Nationally there has been a 32.5% increase in crime recorded. Gloucestershire has witnessed a 48% increase which makes up for the previously identified shortfalls in crime recording of between 13-19% and is aligned to the national trend of uplift.
“The overall increases are indicative of the progress that has been made in the constabulary’s ability to deliver a reliable crime recording process, ensuring those affected are afforded the service they have a right to deserve and expect. Additionally, all officers, sergeants and inspectors have received crime recording awareness training to further enhance the forces’ ability to recognise and record crime accurately and timely.”
Cllr Padilla also explained how the council is working with the police to target hotspot arrears. The council is also proactively identifying behaviours such as harassment and intimidation where we can step in quickly and act, he said.
“Our on-going close relationships with the city protection officers and city safe allow information to be swiftly fed back to us when individuals or behaviours are noted to be a concern, most recently we received a report from one of our retail outlets regarding inappropriate sexual behaviour from an individual – we’re already in the process of building a case for an anti-social behaviour injunction.
“The city is progressing the recruitment of a safer spaces officer, who we are hoping will be joining us around June. This role will look at how we can make our spaces safer, improve consultation and engagement and react better across the community safety partnership to things that residents and visitors to the city report to us.”
He also said the Youth Violence Prevention work via the Stronger Safer Partnership continues, and the first subgroup meeting was held in late February. The group will continue their work to bring the voice of the community and lived experience to help shape our partnership response to youth violence over the coming years, Cllr Padilla said.
“Our Gloucester-focused work will sit alongside the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner work to give us a fuller picture on how we as a partnership need to work to effectively tackle youth violence in our city.
“We are linking in with the OPCC and Home Office on the serious violence duty and are part of working groups for the countywide strategy being developed by the OPCC.”
During the meeting in March, the council agreed to write to the Justice Secretary asking him to review his approach to sentencing and provide a greater deterrence to those who refuse to engage with support or repeatedly carry knives.