The Blackpool Community Gating Project started following work by the Community Safety and Drugs Team Police Analyst who discovered that at least 21% of domestic burglaries took place as a result of offenders gaining access via back streets and alleyways.
In 2009, Mrs Katarina Wilkie, working in partnership with BSafe Blackpool, submitted her dissertation towards her degree in Criminology and the Criminal Justice System, via Blackpool and the Fylde College (An associate college of Lancaster University). The dissertation was entitled “Alley-gates: Do they work?” and the aim of this research was to examine the impact of Blackpool’s alley-gating scheme, both on the crime rate and how the local community perceived the impact of the alley-gates.
The conclusions were that the alleygates have had a considerable impact on reducing crime and anti social behaviour.
The success and popularity of the gating project is such that it has spread across Blackpool not only tackling Domestic Burglaries but also other crime and anti-social behaviour including drug related crime, fly tipping, dog fouling etc.
If you want to apply for an alley gate to be installed, please contact your Local Councillor or attend your Local Area Panel.
On 1st April 2006 Section 129 A – G of the Highways Act 1980 came into force. This empowers the local authority to make a ‘gating order’ where it can be shown that persistent crime and anti-social behaviour is expressly facilitated by the use of certain rights of way.
The act sets out the general principles, asserting that a council must be satisfied, before making an order, that the area surrounding the relevant highway suffers from persistent crime or antisocial behaviour and would act as a useful crime / anti-social behaviour reduction method.
When the alleygate is ready to be installed, letters explaining the procedure for obtaining keys will be delivered to every household and business . You will be invited to produce identification to make sure keys are only issued to those entitled to them.
All households or businesses within the alley gate block are entitled to a key. You must treat this key as you would your front/rear door key as misuse will impact on the security of the alleyway. The keys cost £8.00 each.
In cases where there is a need, additional keys will be provided at the same cost as the original key for your family and friends. However, we do not support the issue of keys to people living outside of the block unless they are providing medical or home help or other services – these cases will be dealt with on merit.
All approved service providers have been issued with alley gate keys to make sure they have access to your alleyway in an emergency.
The alleygates will be maintained by the Council. Please use this link to our form to obtain and pay for an alleygate key.
|