Community action day triumph in Shefford
Friday, 6 May 2022
We're completed another successful community action day, this time in Shefford.
Partners were out in force helping residents with a range of issues that matter to them and making a big difference in Shefford.
This included carrying out high visibility patrols, providing advice, meeting residents and businesses, tidying up and making noticeable improvements to the local area.
In response to reports of anti-social behaviour and other community safety issues, our Safer Neighbourhood team and Bedfordshire Police officers carried out patrols and door knocks to engage with residents, understand their concerns and offer help and advice.
We held information stalls at Pamoli Square throughout the day to talk to residents, officers shared crime prevention advice and information about how to report a range of community safety issues and asked people them to fill in the Safer Central Survey.
Shefford Town Council, Street Watch, Bedfordshire Recovery College, Grand Union, our youth team, and police officers from the Lateral Flow Operation offered lots of invaluable information and advice. The BLMK Wellbeing Service also attended and held online wellbeing sessions from 19 – 22 April.
Our Trash Cube was on display on Pamoli Square. The cube contained litter that had been picked up from the pavement around Shefford. It showed staggering amounts of litter that we and our contractors manage daily and aimed to encourage residents to dispose of their litter appropriately. Our waste team also undertook its normal cleaning duties in the area.
Shefford Library staff showed people around the library, and gave out goodie bags. Flitwick Leisure Centre staff offered information about their facilities and membership options.
Our Trading Standards team also took part in a "cold caller sweep" patrol to check the area for doorstep callers, provide visibility and talk to residents about this issue. Our Highways team fixed issues highlighted by the public and our Parking Enforcement team undertook a parking patrol.
St Michael and All Angels Parish Church, located on Shefford High Street also held a coffee morning.
Councillor Ian Dalgarno, our Executive Member for Community Services, said:
Our community action day in Shefford was a massive success. It was a perfect opportunity for lots of our officers from a range of teams to meet with residents and to hear about what issues need to be addressed in the area.
We were really pleased to be joined by so many of our teams, residents and our partner agencies and we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who attended to make it such an enjoyable and productive day.