The Welsh Government, the Designing Out Crime Group Wales and Secured by Design (SbD) have launched Safer Places Wales to support the prevention of crime.
Safer Places Wales sets out how successful planning and street design can discourage criminal activity and reduce the fear of crime. Covered are seven ‘attributes of sustainable communities’: Access and Movement, structure, surveillance, ownership, physical protection, activity, and ‘Management and Maintenance’.
It provides practical advice for planners, developers, local authorities and stakeholders to support them in embedding crime prevention principles into the design and planning process. It is intended to help both developers and decision makers consider issues of community safety at the beginning of the design process and encourage conversations at the concept stage. For the 20-page document, visit the Secured by Design website.
Welsh Government Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Energy and Planning, Rebecca Evans, said: โThe Safer Places Wales guidance represents an important step forward in how we think about safety within community spaces. Places that are well designed, well connected, and well used are places that feel safer and function better.
โThe new principles will also help us deliver environments that are more welcoming, more accessible, and more reflective of the communities they serve.โ
Mike Harvey, Designing Out Crime Officer (DOCO) from South Wales Police, chairs the Designing out Crime Group Wales. He said:ย โThe guidance provides practical advice for planners, developers, local authorities, and stakeholders to support them in embedding crime prevention principles into the design and planning process. It is intended to help both developers and decision makers to consider issues of community safety at the beginning of the design process and for them to involve Designing Out Crime Officers (DOCOs) and have conversations with them at the concept stage. The aim is to work in partnership and to make places that are safer and to promote safe, sustainable and attractive environments.โ
The document points to the need for the timely bringing in of DOCOs – once a formal planning application is submitted, ‘the opportunity to take account of advice may already be limited’.
Photo by Mark Rowe: Caernarfon Castle.
