Cumbria
Community Safety Strategic Assessment
South Lakeland District Summary
November 2013
Ali Wilson
Senior Research, Information & Intelligence Officer
BACKGROUND
This Summary Report provides a narrative overview of community safety within South Lakeland. It forms part of a collection of documents which make up the Community Safety Strategic Assessment (CSSA) for Cumbria.
The Crime and Disorder Regulations 2007 place a statutory duty on Community Safety Partnerships (CSPs) to prepare a Joint Strategic Assessment of crime and disorder in their local areas. The aim of the CSSA is to provide partners with an understanding of the levels and patterns of crime, disorder and substance misuse in the county and local areas, through statistical analysis, information about crime, changes and patterns over time, and, where possible, explanations as to why these changes have occurred.
The CSSA will highlight the county’s priorities for the Safer Cumbria Board, district CSPs and other responsible authorities that are working together to tackle crime, disorder and substance misuse. The CSSA will provide the evidence base for the development of Cumbria’s Community Safety Agreement by helping to identify and prioritise the resources and interventions required to combat crime and disorder. It will draw on issues raised by those working or living in local communities including areas that they feel should be addressed.
This report is one of six district Summaries which sit alongside an overall Cumbria Summary and the Cumbria Community Safety Technical Report to make up the CSSA. The narrative within this report draws on the data and analysis contained in the comprehensive Cumbria Community Safety Strategic Assessment Technical Report.
From the Strategic Assessment, South Lakeland CSP will develop a Partnership Plan that will include the priority areas for 2014/15, how we will tackle them and targets we aim to meet.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
South Lakeland is a safe place to live with the second lowest crime rate in Cumbria and levels of crime continuing to fall. In the past year crime in South Lakeland has fallen by 14.9%. Nationally, South Lakeland is the seventh least deprived district in England in terms of crime.
The district has the lowest rates of drug crime, theft of and from motor vehicles, domestic violence, deliberate fires and those killed or seriously injured on the district’s roads. Levels of anti-social behavior and hate crime are also low.
Despite the overall declining levels of crime in South Lakeland, burglary dwelling, burglary other and domestic violenceare increasing. Although the rate of criminal damage is not the highest in the county it remains an issue within South Lakeland with levels remaining above the average of its most similar groups.
Alcohol misuse is a concern in the district with increasing rates of alcohol related hospital admissions, recorded and violent crimes.
Numbers of deliberate fire incidents have fallen across the district and the number of those killed or seriously injured have fallen significantly.
The typical offender in South Lakeland is male and aged 18-30 years; the typical victim is male and aged 41-50 years, a reflection of the older population in the district. Crime and disorder is most prevalent in the area of Kendal specifically the ward of Kendal Fellwhich had the greatest number of incidents, mostly driven by high levels of Anti-Social Behaviour, theft and business crime. Other wards with high levels of crime include Kendal Mintsfeet,and Windermere Bowness South.
Future changes to welfare reform may have an impact on levels of crime. As we see levels of household income reduce through benefit cuts, adding further to financial pressures in the home, we may see an increase in alcohol and substance misuse, crime (potentially acquisitive crime) as well as domestic violence. Some of these welfare reforms have already taken place but further changes will continue to take place up until 2017. Services may see an increase in demand as changes to personal and financial circumstances take place.
PEOPLE AND COMMUNITIES
Kendal is the largest town and administrative centre of South Lakeland. The district contains popular areas of the Lake District National Park including Lake Windermere, Coniston Water and the Langdale Valley, as well as the tourist towns of Bowness, Ambleside and Grasmere. The south of the district contains the Lake District Peninsular. This areaincludes the market town and industrial centre of Ulverston, the Edwardian resort of Grange-over-Sands which overlooks Morecombe Bay and the Arnside and Silverdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. In the east of the district is the town of Kirby Lonsdale as well as the book town of Sedbergh which is part of theYorkshire Dales National Park.
South Lakeland is the second largest district in Cumbria, after Eden, with a geographical area of 1534 km2. It is also the second most populated district, after Carlisle, with a current population of 103,500 people.
The district’s population is an ageing population with numbers of young people falling. South Lakeland has the highest proportion of its population aged over 65 years of all districts in Cumbria, reflecting the district’s desirability to older people and as a place to retire.
6.3% of South Lakeland’s population are from black and minority ethnic groups, a higher proportion than any other district in Cumbria. The average male living in South Lakeland can expect to live to 79.3 years, above the county and national average; and the average female 82.9 years, also above the county and national average. There is an approximate gap of 7.1 years for males between the best and worst areas in South Lakeland, and a gap of 7.4 years for females. The ward of Sedbergh & Kirkby Lonsdale has the highest life expectancy for females than any other area in Cumbria at 86.3 years.
Tourism plays a central role in South Lakeland’s economy, due to the presence of both the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales National Parks. South Lakeland is the district in the county which generates the greatest economic impact from tourism. In 2012, 14.9 million tourists visited South Lakeland bringing in £955.1 million to the economy. In addition to the tourism sector, there is a growing advanced manufacturing sector with a planned expansion at GlaxoSmithKline. Within South Lakeland the largest areas of employment are accommodation & food (19.1%), health (10.5%) and manufacturing (10.0%).
59.3% of South Lakeland’s population are of working-age, the lowest proportion of any district in Cumbria, reflecting the older population. Levels of household income are no longer the highest in South Lakeland however they do remain above the average for the county - the median average annual household income in South Lakeland is £25,780; the ward of Whinfell has the greatest level of household income at £34,384, significantly greater than the Kendal Kirkland at £19,337.The median house price in the district is £196,326, the highest in Cumbria and above the national average. There are low levels of unemployment with just 1.4% of the district’s working-age population claiming job seekers allowance, the second lowest level in Cumbria and below the national rate of 3.8%. Factors such as the low levels of crime and the rich natural beauty make South Lakeland a very desirable place to live.
South Lakeland is the least deprived district in Cumbria and falls within the 30% least deprived authority’s in England. It has the lowest proportion ofchildren living in poverty at 8.0%, well below county and national averages. 14% of households have an income of less than £10,000, although this is low compared to other areas in Cumbria it is above national levels. Despite South Lakeland being an affluent area overall there are areas and pockets of deprivation and poverty, not just in urban areas where there are higher levels of unemployment but in rural areas where it isn’t always as prominent. It is also worth noting that levels of fuel poverty are above national levels with 23.2% of South Lakeland’s households living in fuel poverty.
COMMUNITY SAFETY INFORMATION
This section will present the narrative of community safety within South Lakeland.
Two different measures of incidents have been used:
- Number: the exact number of incidents / offences within South Lakeland.
- Rate: the number of incidents in relation to South Lakeland’s population.
Substance misuse and alcohol
The impact of alcohol on the health of the population of South Lakeland is comparatively less significant than in other parts of the county, however, there are some alcohol related issues and areas of concern which should be considered and addressed.Despite being below national levels, rates of alcohol related hospital admissions are increasing year on year. Rates of those aged 16 years and over engaging in binge drinking is above the rate for England; and alcohol specific mortality for females has been rising consecutively for 3 years and is now above national rates. Alcohol specific mortality in males is falling, is the second lowest rate in Cumbria and is significantly below the average for the North West region and England.
Levels of admissions of under 18’s for alcohol attributable conditions have been falling year on year, however they remain above the national average.
The rate of crime attributable to alcohol in South Lakeland is the second lowest rate in the county, after Eden, but has increased in the past year. So too have alcohol related violent crimes although these continue to remain below county, regional and national averages. Alcohol related offences against the person have also fallen, however, this may not necessarily represent an improvement as it may reflect the way an incident has been recorded.
403 service users in South Lakeland have engaged in drug and alcohol treatment with Unity in the last 12 months. 51% of these clients were receiving support for an alcohol problem with the remaining 49% being supported for a primary drug problem. Heroin was the most common problem substance (36%) for those accessing drug treatment. The most common group accessing treatment services are males in the 35-39 and 40-44 age groups.
Since 1July 2012, the provider of all substance misuse services in Cumbria, including Haverigg Prison has been Greater Manchester West NHS trust , under the title of Unity. The service includes all support to address a range of substances and works with individuals from referral through to successful discharge. It is asset based and recovery focused, working with community assets to develop meaningful and comprehensive services for clients which support the move to recovery, community integration and participation.
Unity continues to work with colleagues in criminal justice services, statutory, and non-statutory bodies to support the development of recovery focused interventions. The Unity structure includes dedicated staff working with colleagues in health, probation, prisons, safe guarding, and local community groups, and in supporting the development of self-help networks it actively seeks out opportunities to network with all other providers. Success will be measured in many ways, including increased access to the service, its role in developing an asset based recovery focused network, the number of individuals leaving treatment in recovery, and positively contributing to their local communities.
Unity work with individuals experiencing problems through various types of substance misuse and covering a range of sources. During 2012/13, there was 20% increase in the numbers accessing a more comprehensive and accessible service than that previously commissioned, as well as receiving the appropriate support to facilitate their recovery. That number is expected to increase further in 2014 now that the new service is established.
Public Health England recently published the costs of alcohol in South Lakeland during 2011/12.The cost breaks down to a total of £329 per head of population which ranks South Lakeland at 65 out 72 north west local authorities, when 72 is the lowest cost per had.
South Lakeland and Barrow CSPs are currently working to a South Cumbria Alcohol Strategy that runs until 2015. South Lakeland projects in the current financial year include an alcohol awareness campaign with young people, led by Inspira and a joint project between the Youth Offending Service and Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service (CADAS)to recruit, train and support volunteers to work with and mentor young people.
Reoffending
The south of the county currently has a significantly lower number of offenders than the north and west. Offenders are typically male and aged between 20-29 years reflecting the situation in Cumbria as a whole. Over the last 3 years actual rates of reoffending in Cumbria have remained below predicted rates. Over the same period, reoffending rates have fallen. In the Kendal & Penrith Trust, violence accounts for 27.0% of offending, followed by drugs (10.5%). 18.0% of offenders in the Kendal & Penrith Trust have shown evidence of committing domestic abuse; and 20.7% have parental responsibility. Reducing the level of reoffending in Cumbria remains a priority for the partnership and through systems such as Prevent and Deter for young people, and the Integrated Offender Management system for adults this should be achieved in the future.
South Lakeland Community Safety Partnership has provided funding to support Integrated Offender Management and reduce re-offending. It is well documented that a job and accommodation are key to preventing re-offending. SLCSP support included a contribution to the cost of driving lessons to support an offender to gain full time permanent employment and a contribution to the cost of somefurniture following an offer of accommodation.
Domestic and Sexual Violence
South Lakeland continues to have the second lowest rate of incidents of domestic violence in the county, after Eden. Incidents have increased by 2.3% in the past year, and the repeat victim rate has fallen by 4.6%. Despite the fall in the number of incidents domestic violence is still a serious issue in the district and is often not reported. Levels of domestic violence in South Lakeland were highest in the ward of Kendal Kirkland. There was also notable numbers of incidents in the wards of Kendal Fell, and Kendal Underley. These areas are relatively deprived areas with high levels of child poverty and unemployment. Despite the typical trend of incidents taking place in areas of poverty and deprivation it is important to be aware that domestic violence is often hidden and not reported particularly in affluent areas and rural areas, improving detection rates and access to support services should remain a priority.
In the past year numbers of sexual violence incidents increased by 27.1%, the greatest increase experienced than any other district.
It is worth noting that South Lakeland CSP hasa target to increase the reporting of domestic violence. There are well established services for high risk victims of domestic abuse operating across Cumbria and a Domestic Violence Champions Network covering South Cumbria. Many organisations have signed up to the network, including SLDC, Cumbria Police, Probation Trust, health professionals, midwives, Barnado’s, Age UK, CCC Children’s services and 3rd sector groups. They use trained nominated champions help raise awareness of DV amongst their own staff and their service users. These trained staff signpost victims to agencies who can offer help and support.
Anti Social Behaviour (ASB)
South Lakeland has the second lowest rate of ASB in the countyreflecting the low levels of crime overall but also a reflection of the relatively small numbers of young people living in the district.Levels of ASB continue to fall and in the past year they have fallen by 10.8% in the past and 21.3% over three years.ASB involving young people fell significantly in the past years and higher than any other district at 33.6%; 35.5% over three years. This is evidence of the various successful initiatives and interventions in place throughout the district including: Bar Watch, Integrated Offender Management (IOM), Local Problem Solving, Prevent and Deter, the ‘It’s Your Choice’ staged process of dealing with youth ASB and supporting repeat victims of ASB using the ‘Anti-social behaviour risk assessment (ASBRA) which have all contributed to this fall.
ASB is typically most prevalent in urban areas, areas which are often relatively deprived with high levels of unemployment and crime, however, the greatest number of incidents in South Lakeland took place in Kendal Fell. Other areas with high levels of ASB includeUlverston Town, Kendal Mintsfeet and wards surrounding Windermere town.
Crime
South Lakeland is a safe place to live. It has the second lowest crime rate in Cumbria and is the seventh least deprived district in terms of crime in the whole of England. Crime in the district has been falling year on year and in the past year experienced the greatest fall than any other district across the county at 14.9%, reflecting the picture for the county as a whole.