East Suffolk Council
Future Felixstowe – Clear Hold Build
Clear, Hold, Build is a community safety initiative, developed by the Home Office, to help police forces tackle serious and organised crime.
It reclaims and rebuilds neighbourhoods affected by organised crime, makes areas safer and increases public confidence in the police and partner agencies.
The phases are defined as:
Clear
Targeted activity and crime disruption. This means the police and partners work together to stop crime and catch people who are breaking the law in certain areas.
Hold
Stabilising the area to stop criminals moving in to fill the void. This means that once the criminals are gone, the partnership makes sure no new criminals take their place and the area stays safe.
Build
Community-driven action to address the causes of criminality and prevent it from happening again. This means that people in the community along with other groups, work together to make the area better and fix the reasons why the problems happened in the first place. This helps stop crime from coming back.
Future Felixstowe was launched in 2024, following a rise in drug related crime and associated violence and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in the town. A period of police-led activity took place between August 2023 and July 2024 resulting in the execution of 15 search warrants, 45 arrests and multiple drugs and cash seizures.
The programme has been conducted in partnership with local authorities (East Suffolk Council and Suffolk County Council, educational authorities and numerous other key partners including the Town Council and community organisations.)
The Future Felixstowe branding was designed by a students at Felixstowe School.
Following the success of the Clear phase, three multi-agency project delivery groups were established to improve the local environment and make it more difficult for organised crime groups to resume activity.
Each group focuses on a key area of intervention:
Environmental improvements
Key outcomes
- Alleyway clearances
- Rubbish removal
- Walkabouts to identify at risk areas
- Review of CCTV provision across the town
Youth Diversionary activity
Key outcomes
- Delivery of Crucial Crew+ pilot programme at the High School to raise awareness of issues including exploitation, substance misuse, Crime and ASB and to raise aspirations of young people
- Completion of a survey specific to young people in the town which gained insight on how safe they feel and what could be improved
- Funding secured via the Serious Violence Duty Partnership for Music workshops to be delivered to young people in the town and to provide Counselling provision at Felixstowe School, match funded by the Felixstowe Peninsula Community Partnership
Beach Street Café
- Development of a bespoke space for young people to access diversionary activity and mentoring / coaching support
Each group is dedicated to the strategic aims of the Future Felixstowe project which are to:
- Improve the service provision to the most vulnerable groups.
- Improve and enhance the environment in public spaces.
- Make Felixstowe hostile to criminality and ASB.