Staying safe in your communities
We know that from time-to-time people may feel anxious or have concerns about their safety. At Stonewater, we want to reassure you that help and support are available.
If you or members of your community experience abuse, here’s what you can do:
- Report any potential criminal behaviour – if you experience hate speech, vandalism, malicious damage to property or other potential criminal activity, please contact the police straight away. You can call 101 to report property damage or anti-social behaviour in your neighbourhood and 999 if you (or someone else) is in immediate danger or a crime is in progress.
- Let us know – any potential criminal activity should also be reported to Stonewater so that we can work with the authorities in your area.
- Get support – if you have been affected or suffered as a result of activity in your community our anti-social behaviour (ASB) team can help.
- Come together - reaching out to neighbours, being an ally and actively including people in community activity can go a long way to making people feel safe and welcome.
- Emotional wellbeing – anyone witnessing or experiencing potential criminal activity may go through a range of emotions. We can refer you to our partners, Longleigh, for mental health support, or signpost you to other helpful resources. Just reach out to us.
We want everyone to feel welcome and included in our communities. If you need support, let us know – we're always here to help. You can find out how to contact us and report anti-social behaviour on our website.
Our handy anti-social behaviour (ASB) guide covers what ASB is, when we can and can’t help, how to deal with disruptive neighbours and links to additional support.
You can also visit ASB Help, a great resource with lots of information and support.
We’ve taken big steps to improve our ASB service over the past year
In April, we restructured our ASB team: updating existing roles and adding new ones to bring in more expertise, legal knowledge and give the team more ability to make decisions. This makes it easier for us to share information, take clear ownership of cases and keep your experience at the heart of what we do.
We’ve improved how our ASB team works locally, with team members now working in regional hubs, helping them build stronger relationships in the areas they cover and respond in a way that works better for you.
We also know that sometimes it can be hard to know what counts as ASB and what steps you can take, so we want to share some examples of how we’ve worked with customers to take action and make a difference. We shared two real cases our team recently resolved, over on the customer hubb.
“This case highlights the importance of fast, proportionate action and strong partnership working. We are proud of how the team responded to protect the community while handling a complex and sensitive case.”
Mary Langston, ASB Team Manager at Stonewater
Earlier this summer, our ASB team joined us for a Facebook Live to share more about ASB, how we can support you if you’re experiencing problems with your neighbours and other tools and services that can help.