Successful Community Action Day in Stotfold
Tuesday, 23 August 2022
We held an Action Day in Stotfold on Friday 12 August, bringing partners together to make visible improvements to the town and have a positive impact on residents and businesses.
The Stotfold Action Day is one of a series of proactive events we organise in towns and villages across Central Bedfordshire to make our communities even better places to live.
Our Safer Communities Team was joined by Bedfordshire Police, and Grand Union Housing Group on door-to-door visits to engage with residents, providing information and guidance around the services they offer.
Safer Neighbourhood Officers provided high visibility patrols across the area, along with Street Watch and our Trading Standards Team, who conducted a Cold Caller Sweep. This involved speaking to residents about cold calling and rogue trader activity, allowing Trading Standards to gather valuable intelligence and information about ongoing activity that may require our intervention or support.
In addition, the Safer Communities Business Officer performed business visits and spoke about the benefits of joining the Best Bar None Scheme which resulted in two premises signing up on the day.
Advice and information stalls were available in town from the Community Safety Team, Public Health Service, Trading Standards Team, Bedfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and local councillors.
Stotfold Library also held a recycling event and bike marking kits were available to local cyclists. Information was provided by residents which led to further actions on the day from our Safer Neighbourhood Team. Our ‘Trash Cube’ was also on display outside the library. The cube contained litter that had been picked up from the pavement around Stotfold. It showed staggering amounts of litter that our environmental services team and its contractors manage daily and aimed to encourage residents to dispose of their litter appropriately.
The Grand Union Youth Participation Team were at Riverside leading the Graffiti Project and the TREE Project (Tackling, Reducing and Ending Exploitation) joined them to talk with young people.
A weapons sweep was conducted, and Bedfordshire Police held speed checks in town. On the High Street, our Highways Team carried out improvements and the Probation Service’ Pay Back Scheme painted the public toilets. Further actions were identified including improving more toilet facilities which will be taken forward by the town council, and Safer Neighbourhood Officers identified a risk which resulted in securing a broken gate for safety reasons.
Councillor Ian Bond, Deputy Executive Member for Community Services, said:
Our Community Action Day in Stotfold made visible improvements to the town and was an enormous triumph. It was a perfect opportunity for our teams and partners to meet with residents to hear about what issues need to be addressed in the local area. Gathering information from local residents is key to understanding and tackling any problems and helps us improve services in their community to ensure it’s a great place to live and work.
We’re extremely pleased so many of our teams and partner agencies took part, and we would like to say a massive thank you to everyone who attended to make it such a helpful and informative day.