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Safety in numbers

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Combining the Wanstead Park and Wanstead Village Safer Neighbourhoods Team meetings will boost attendance and create a more effective approach to tackling local crime, hopes Terilla Bernard

Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) ward panel meetings are held on a quarterly basis, with each ward in the borough holding their own events. Wanstead Park SNT and Wanstead Village SNT each hold their meetings at Wanstead House.

As you would expect, these meetings discuss local crime and issues that affect the respective wards. They last about 90 minutes and, in addition to SNT police officers and community support officers, they are open to local residents, local councillors and Epping Forest rangers.

Data (crime statistics) is shared with attendees who are also invited to share intelligence about what is happening in their neighbourhoods, along with any concerns they may have. A key part of the meetings is to agree on three key areas of concern to residents as initiatives the SNT will tackle over the coming three-month period, with one of the key initiatives being identified as part of a wider Metropolitan Police initiative.

I have been attending the Wanstead Park SNT meetings for approximately two years, and I have noticed that it is usually the same six or seven residents who regularly show up. The more widespread approach seems to be one where residents express their opinions, report crime and raise concerns on social media platforms rather than face-to-face at SNT meetings.

This approach, in my opinion, isn’t a very productive way of enabling and supporting the police to tackle crime. Many members of the community believe crime is not being dealt with and have a ‘what is the point in reporting crime because the police don’t bother to turn up’ attitude. But it would be more beneficial in terms of tackling local crime if more residents attended these meetings.

In terms of the Wanstead Park SNT meetings, we are in need of a chairperson. We did have one, but unfortunately, they had to step down due to ill health. So, we are now amalgamating the Wanstead Park and Wanstead Village SNT meetings on the basis that Wanstead Village has a chairperson and with the hope this will boost the number of residents attending the events. There are also similar trends in crime across both wards, so a combined approach makes sense. Another issue is that our meetings have sporadic attendance by local councillors, so this too needs to be improved.

I have regularly tried to encourage more residents to attend SNT meetings but with little or no success. I do hope this article will do the trick and we see more people getting involved in improving our community’s safety.


A joint Wanstead Village and Wanstead Park SNT ward panel meeting will take place on 7 February from 7pm at Wanstead House, 21 The Green, E11 2NT.

To contact your local SNT, visit wnstd.com/snt

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Author: Editor