Chiltern Forum 27th November 2019

Thank you to all who contributed to a record near-600 responses to the Community Forum surveys, and who defied a cold, wet November evening to attend the meeting in the Library at Misbourne School.

Decisions for the top Neighbourhood Policing priorities were as follows:

Residential Burglary

Drug Dealing

Speeding

Violence against a Person

READ minutes of Chiltern Community Forum 27th November 2019 (PDF)

The first three were unchanged from the previous quarter. For the first time, the Forum added a fourth priority, responding to some of the concerns and comments in the surveys (also to the fact that the meeting was evenly split between Drug Dealing and Violence against a Person for the third priority!)

As ever, the meeting started with a report on policing of previous priorities, moving on to open, frank discussions with members of Chiltern’s Neighbourhood Policing team.

The meeting was informed by the results of the surveys. Aggregate responses, responses by the four areas and responses to the under-18s’ survey can be seen below. Though the challenge of raising the response rate to the under-18s’ survey remains ‘work in progress’, we would like especially to thank those who did respond to the survey.

The top 3 concerns across the whole area were also the top 3 priorities for the past quarter – Residential Burglary, Drug Dealing and Speeding.
Every single area and the under 18s listed Residential Burglary as their major concern.
In Amersham area, 9 out of 10 respondents nominated Residential Burglary, and their 2nd and 3rd choices also related to theft. We discovered during the meeting that an Amersham-based WhatsApp group for victims of crime had been mobilised to respond to the survey. Though this may have weighted the results somewhat, we welcome participation of resident groups. In fact, the Forum made greater use of local Facebook Groups this time around, and this undoubtedly helped simulate responses.
In Chesham, Drug Dealing was a strong second concern. For the Missendens it was Speeding. The Chalfonts survey reflected recent incidences of Antisocial Behaviour.
Knife Crime was the number 2 concern for Under 18s. The comments made in the Under 18s’ survey showed considerable anxiety for safety of person and property.