Anti-Social Behaviour

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Overview

A significant portion of residents tell me they are concerned with anti-social behaviour. Many consider it a ‘young people causing problems’ issue. While there’s certainly some truth in that, it isn’t the case that all anti-social behaviour comes from young people.

But you also fail to understand the real issue when you do – when you don’t give people things to do and provide amenities, people will be bored. When people are bored they’ll revert to anti-social behaviour more often. We need to develop and see things for young people arrive so that the town has a variety of facilities for them. This will significantly help with those types of issues where they arise with young people and simply blaming them and expecting them to ‘behave’ misses the point. Will it solve everything? No, but offering them nothing isn’t going to make it better by magic either.

Let’s be realistic though – Anti-Social behaviour happens with adults too and isn’t exclusively a ‘young person’ problem whether it is an issue some might consider petty such as littering or dog fouling to the more serious issues that can arise in communities, we need to develop Cranbrook to help everyone have things to do, to feel comfortable living in the town and work harder to understand what causes a lack of respect for the environment they live in and each other. It matters that people work together to support everyone, to look after our community and help make Cranbrook a great place to live. Whether you’re bringing up a family, enjoying your retirement or simply want a quiet life happy in your own bubble at home, Cranbrook should be a fantastic town for you to live in and it has every chance to be that with a bit of effort.

Cranbrook actually isn’t that bad a place at all in many respects and there is a lot more going on than you might realise (I’m working on helping make discovery of what’s going on easier in another project behind the scenes – more on that soon), but undoubtedly the Council can help and strong representation is needed to make the case for the town to get more things done.

I’ve been truly amazed how many schemes, ideas, projects there are working to make Cranbrook better, never mind the Community Groups that exist for all kinds of people with all manner of activities and the community spirit that’s so clearly there and needs support and encouragement. The more the whole community comes together, the fewer issues with anti-social behaviour everyone will have. Like many issues in a community, the solution to any problem often involves more than one thing being done and continuous progress and I’ll keep pushing to make them happen.

Cranbrook has every chance to be great for everyone, regardless of your age, race, background, status etc. It can foster an atmosphere that isn’t full of conflict. A town is more than just building a load of houses and sitting back expecting it to work, and there’s plenty to do!

Whatever your thoughts on Anti-Social behaviour, I’d love to hear them.

A few local community things you might not know about…

If you want to find more activities and ways to meet other people for yourself or others to help them get involved, you might be interested in taking a look at the EX5 Alive project – a community hub for the Town, as well as the various things that are happening through the Cranbrook Community Association. Finally don’t overlook the Grow Eat Do project (there’s a Curry & Quiz night on 15th April for a suggested donation of only £3 – I’ll be there too, so why not get a ticket and go and meet other people in the community)

If you’re into sports and leisure – there’s something for you too – for example if you’re into Football, theres’ the Cranbrook United Football Club and Cranbrook Running Club as just a couple of examples. Conversely if you’d rather be enjoying a bit of a social activity with some other local residents, you might want to join the Cranbrook Inbetweeners group who arrange social activities like pub nights, comedy evenings etc.