UPDATED 17/05/2011
Sergeant Julian (Griff) Barnes is responsible for the Safer Neighbourhoods Team covering Elson. The Elson area covers Holbrook through to Forton: east of the A32 from the Royal Naval Armaments Depot south and down to and including St Vincents College. 
The officers on the team are:
- PC Sarah Coolahan
- PC Clare Parry
- PC Peter Hunns
The PCSOs on the team are:
- PCSO Ian Wright
- PCSO Dawn Ayres
PC Sarah Coolahan PC Clare Parry PC Peter Hunns
PCSO Ian Wright PCSO Dawn Ayres
Sergeant Barnes says “I am well aware of the effect of anti social behaviour by the minority and the effect this has on large sections of the community. Your Elson Safer Neighbourhood Team will be dedicated to targeting those areas and individuals that persist in ruining other peoples’ peace.
"This will be a partnership effort and we will be seeking information and assistance from all sectors to provide the most comprehensive approach I can, to reducing nuisance behaviour for you. In order for this to be effective, I will ask of you, the community, to provide us with information so I can best allocate and prioritize our response.
"I have 18 years service and have been at Gosport pretty much since 2001. I have been a detective previously and recently spent two years at our Winchester Headquarters as the Anti Social Behaviour co-ordinator, ensuring the force's approach was innovative and class leading compared to other forces, with regard to the use of all the legislation available.
"I aim to bring all this to the table with the rest of the team when considering how best to tackle the problems you are experiencing. You will have our best efforts.”
Your local priorities
Locally, we work with your community to find out what matters most where you live. We will work with you and our partner agencies to agree the main priorities for the area and how we will work together to tackle them.
Priority Policing Areas
In conjunction with Gosport Borough Councils Street Scene we have been attending the Park during the evening and have run several operations designed specifically to seize alcohol from underage youths early on in the evenings before their behaviour deteriorates to the point they cause damage and noise issues. We have found this successful and results in a quiet weekend on the following few occasions although I appreciate there is a tendency to displace the youths into neighbouring areas. There has been little activity over the winter months but we will be watching to see how this develops with the longer and warmer evenings again..
The second area we have been asked to look at is the issue of parking. Several areas have been put forward for monitoring and enforcement. As explained to the panels, the issue of parking is one that needs management and is unlikely to be solved due to the rapid increase of cars since Elson was designed and the lack of off street parking to house the extra vehicles. Requests for double yellow lines, if agreed and placed by Highways (a process that can take well over a year) will only result in further areas of roads unavailable for parking, congesting what is left. We have been monitoring several areas, preferring to educate drivers through discussion and letters first but have also been issuing fixed penalty notices where the parking has been very inconsiderate.
The third area covers anti social cycling- on pavements and at night without lights. We are currently stopping these cyclists and have implemented a warning/ fixed penalty notice/ court summons procedure for those persons not heeding the original verbal warnings. In the last two months we have recorded 67 warnings, 7 fixed penalty notices and 3 persons being taken to Court. .
Action we have taken in relation to your priorities
The Elson Safer Neighbourhood team work from the Police Station in Gosport Town Centre, and patrol on police mountain bikes in high visibility clothing, on foot or occasionally from a vehicle. We work every day of the year, day and night, in all weathers. We are also involved with many residents and community associations providing care and advice where we can.
Members of the team are often flexible with their duty times to meet demands and attend community meetings, recognising the partnership approach with you - the community - as our main source of information.
Current and future initiatives
TBA.
Latest News
Elson Safer Neighbourhood area has formed a new focus group called the Local Action Group (LAG). This group meets at the police station every 3 months and consists of a maximum of 12 members of the public who live or work in the Elson area. Requests to join was initially from a list of our KINS, though it is anticipated that there will be a turnover as people come and go. If you would like to be a part of this in the future please let us know. The minutes published as below
LAGMinutes230311.doc
How you can take action
Come and tell us what is important to you in your neighbourhood, and play your part in setting local priorities.
Police Beat Surgeries and Diary Dates
We have run these recently but found them not to be well attended. We aim to be at as many community events as possible in some visible form, though if you would like us to consider particular locations or times for future street surgeries, please let us know, using the contact details below.
We will try and arrange our duties if no one is working so sufficient notice of forthcoming events would be helpful. If there are other agencies you would also like to attend e.g. housing authorities, Gosport Borough Council etc we will try and arrange this.
We would like to hear from you to help us decide how to solve what is affecting your everyday life. We need to know first hand what problems you are experiencing, where and when. We then have a defined problem we can start working towards a solution.
We need your help though in the first place to influence how we police Elson. Members of the team can be met at the below beat surgeries and will be able to offer assistance and advice where possible, or be able to advise you on which agency may be able to assist with your particular query:
Beat Surgeries:
Held at The Range, Gunners Way, Gosport
- 21/05/2011 - 1700 - 1900
- 26/06/2011 - 1000 - 1200
- 30/07/2011 - 1400 - 1600
- 28/08/2011 - 1500 - 1700
- 25/09/2011 - 1500 - 1700
- 06/11/2011 - 1500 - 1700
- 03/12/2011 - 1700 - 1900
You could also volunteer to help the teams working in your local area and make a real difference to your neighbourhood. Click here for more information about police support volunteers.
Crime mapping and local performance information
Hampshire Constabulary has joined with partner agencies in the two counties to provide you with local information about crime and disorder, using a system called CADDIE. On the bottom left hand side of this page, you can enter your postcode into CADDIE to view information about your local area.
You can also view details of how we are performing against certain key criteria in your local area. Click here to see your local performance information.
PACT Meeting
The attached PARTNERS and COMMUNITY together presentation was delivered to local residents, businesses, community leaders, community groups and partners on 18 October 2010.
ElsonPACTApril2011.ppt
How to contact us
To contact the team responsible for your local area, call 101 and ask to speak to someone from your local Safer Neighbourhoods team. Alternatively please email gosporteast@hampshire.pnn.police.uk. If you are calling from outside Hampshire and the Isle of Wight dial 0845 045 45 45.
