Condition of Nottinghamshire - Community
6) Community
This is a new priority but comprises many of those indicators previously forming part of the earlier Quality of Life priority. All the Community indicators are available at ward level. Crime indicators have been expanded in number from three to six.
One of the new indicators is Youth Crime which is defined as the number of offences committed by young people below the age of 18. The district ranking shows that Bassetlaw, Mansfield and Ashfield all have rates of over 6% whilst Rushcliffe has a rate of only 2.2%. The ward rates are best understood through reference to Map C1 [PDF 110KB], which shows a distributed pattern with concentrations in south east Bassetlaw, Mansfield, Ashfield and Gedling and pockets in Newark & Sherwood and Broxtowe. The very high rates in some wards - Worksop South (22.5%), Cumberlands (18.5%), Devon (23.6%) and Bridge (16.5%) in Newark, along with 13 other wards with rates in double figures, are worthy of comment.
The overall Domestic Burglaries rate is down slightly on last year. The districts with the highest rates are Ashfield and Mansfield. Once again Map C2 [PDF 110KB] shows peaks and troughs and groups of wards with particular problems concentrated in Ashfield, Mansfield, Bassetlaw, Broxtowe, Rushcliffe and Gedling. The wards with the highest rates are; Kirkby in Ashfield East, Worksop South East, Eastwood North, Titchfield, and the ward with the highest rate in the county, Musters.
Violence Against the Person has shown an increase since the last edition of Condition was published. The worse district by far is clearly Mansfield. Map C3 [PDF 110KB] shows concentrations in groups of wards in Mansfield, Hucknall, Eastwood and Newark and northern areas of Gedling. The tables show wards with particular problems to be Titchfield, Sherwood, Worksop South, Rampton, Ladybrook, Ravensdale and Castle in Newark.
Vehicle Crime (see Map C4 [PDF 109KB]), is a new indicator; Broxtowe and Mansfield have the highest rates; particularly high ward rates include Blyth and Worksop South, Eastwood North, Strelley and Trowell, Nuthall, Titchfield, west Bassetlaw, central Mansfield, large parts of north Gedling and north Broxtowe.
The overall Criminal Damage rate for the county as a whole is virtually the same as that of 1999 - 4.0% instead of 4.1%. The districts with the worst rates are Ashfield, Bassetlaw and Mansfield with the first two of these having double the rate of Rushcliffe. The ward breakdown shows significant peaks in Kirkby in Ashfield East, Bestwood Park, Northfield and Titchfield, three wards in central Newark together with Boughton and Eastwood South. Map C5 [PDF 109KB] shows these hot spots more clearly.
Total Recorded Crime is also a new indicator this year and is mapped in Map C6 [PDF 110KB]. Districts with the highest rates are Mansfield, Bassetlaw and Ashfield. Wards with particularly high rates include groups in and around Worksop especially Worksop South, several in Ashfield including Hucknall Central, Eastwood North, Titchfield, Ladybrook and Sherwood in Mansfield, Castle, Bridge and Rufford in Newark & Sherwood and relatively high rates in Musters and Lady Bay.
From April 2002, the Home Office is establishing a more consistent national framework for Police forces to record crime in their areas. This should lead to the ending of anomalies in recording practices, which have meant that some forces record crimes based on reporting of crimes by the public whilst others demand evidence of crimes being committed before recording them.
For Nottinghamshire this is likely to mean a reduction in the number of crimes being recorded, while many other forces are likely to experience an increase. The first time that the results of these new arrangements will become evident will be in October 2002, when the crime statistics for the first six months of 2002/03 are published.
Teenage Pregnancy rates are higher in this edition which covers the years 1996-1998 than in Condition 2000 when the rates were based on 1997 figures. Comparing the two editions shows an increase from 5.6% of the 16-19 year old female population in 1997 to 6.5% between 1996-1998. The highest district rate by far is that for Ashfield with a rate three times higher than that of Rushcliffe. The ward breakdown shows the highest rates in Kirkby in Ashfield East and in Netherfield in Gedling (both over 17%), Worksop South East and Harworth East, Stapleford North, Titchfield and Pleasley Hill, Devon, Bridge and Ollerton North. Map C7 [PDF 111KB] shows particular concentrations in the wards in the north west of the county with a further group in Gedling.
The Democratic Participation indicator measures voting patterns in local elections in May 1999. The results show parallels with previous elections carried out between 1996-1999. The lowest district turnout was in Mansfield at 22.7%; some wards recorded percentage turnouts of less than 20%; these include Harworth East and two Worksop wards, Pleasley Hill, Ladybrook, Oak Tree and Titchfield alongside others with over 50% turnout. The pattern revealed by Map C8 [PDF 111KB] shows that the lowest turnout is concentrated in the north west of the county.
