Bit of an amorphous topic, safety. There are so many contributing factors to a safe neighbourhood that fall across so many jurisdictions of governance that it’s basically impossible to tackle in its entirety. But although a local authority may not be responsible for things like allocation of police services, there are still plenty of measures they can implement to make their area safer. Here are three organisations consulting on safety via Citizen Space.

Southwark – Our Healthy Streets: Dulwich

This is phase three of a consultation on how to make Dulwich safer for cyclists and pedestrians in an area that’s heavily congested by through traffic, through traffic calming methods and vehicle bans on certain streets.

Why it’s good: There’s a lot to like about this, like the fact that it’s the third phase of consultation which indicates a real willingness to involve residents every step of the way. It’s also ideal that there are visualisations for all the different proposals, and summaries of the topics covered in the previous two consultation phases, meaning there’s no prior knowledge needed if respondents missed the first two.

Scottish Borders Council – Alcohol Byelaws 2020

In 2019, Scottish Borders Council ran a consultation regarding alcohol in public places. 44% of respondents felt that it wasn’t an issue, 36% thought it was and 20% weren’t sure. After councillors considered the responses, Scot Borders released this second phase of the consultation. Rather than focussing on the county as a whole, it asks for views on four towns where responses to the previous consultation indicated that an alcohol byelaw might be of the most benefit.

Why it’s good: it’s split into chapters, so respondents only need to give views on their area. There’s also lots of great further information embedded into fact banks, such as FAQs and ‘What Happens Next?’

Brighton & Hove – Community Safety Strategy

This one’s interesting as it’s tackling the whole amorphous blob that is ‘safety’ within the constraints of council powers. For example, their strategy on violent crime focuses on a prevention method (e.g. with intervention for youth at risk of falling into violent or organised crime.)

Why it’s good: it’s routed, meaning respondents only answer questions relevant to them rather than clicking through all the survey questions. What I particularly like is that rather than routing respondents through automatically, they can choose if they’d like to be routed to a question set by clicking yes/no.

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