Crime map: Number of antisocial behaviour incidents by Bristol neighbourhood - investigation

Antisocial behaviour plagues the most deprived neighbourhoods in Bristol, a data investigation by Bristol World today highlights - while the most affluent residential areas appear to be spared.

Our look into the neighbourhood-level figures from police.uk comes as the city council’s boss for public health and communities says reducing inequality is a top priority, while police reveal a new way to deal with the crime and engage with impacted communities.

The data shows that there were 9,908 reported incidents of antisocial behaviour in Bristol in the year up to May this year. The offence covers incidents which cause harm, distress or annoyance - and can range from late-night partying to vandalism.

The figures show the neighbourhoods with the highest number of incidents were the city centre, Queens Square and St James Barton - between them amassing more than 1,500 reports to police.

Then outside of the city centre, Filwood Broadway had the highest number with 202 reports. The area is classed in the top 10% of deprived communities in England, according to the English Indices of Deprivation 2019. The data set ranks the neighbourhood as the 477th deprived out of 32,844 in England.

Next comes Bedminster East with 198 reports, which is in the top 20% of deprived communities in the UK. Also high up is Illminster Avenue East in Bedminster, Hareclive in Hartcliffe and St Pauls Portland Square.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, Henbury Hill, Canford Park in Wesbury-on-Trym and Manworthy Road in Brislington have the lowest number - just two. Both Henbury Hill and Canford Park are in the top 10% least deprived communities in the UK.

Ellie King, Bristol City Council’s cabinet member for public health and communities, said inequality does result in varying crime levels across the city. Part of her work is to improve people’s health in the most deprived areas of Bristol. She is also working on projects to make communities safer.

She told Bristol World that tackling inequality in the city was one of her and the council’s top priorities.

“We are one of the wealthiest cities in Europe,” she said, “but we also have high levels of deprivation with areas in south Bristol particularly being in that top percentile, and that leads to all sorts of inequalities.

“The life expectancy and healty life expectancy difference is shocking - it is about 10 years between someone in Clifton and someone in Hartcliffe, and about 17 years of healthy life expectancy.

“If we don’t have a city which is built for all of us which includes the opportunity to have a good education, to have a secure home, to have access to jobs and skills in the same way our wealthy residents do then you are going to have problems.”

She said that although the council could not be expected to solve the entire issue on its own, it was putting down ‘building blocks for change’ which included extra resources invested into communities to pay for things like street lights or education.

Last month, the council won £750k of funding from the Government’s Safer Streets Fund to pay for a project targeting drug dealing, antisocial behaviour and attacks on women in Bedminster East and Hartcliffe.

It is hoped the project - which will pay for better street lighting, youth work and six mini community projects - will reduce the number of offences in the area by 30%.

Involved in the bid was Avon and Somerset Police.

Chief Inspector Robert Cheeseman is the force’s lead on antisocial behaviour. He said regular meetings between police and residents were taking place within each neighbourhood force area to combat the issues, when they arise.

He also said the force had taken on a new strategy to deal with the incidents, putting them into three main categories; personal antisocial behaviour, nuisance antisocial behaviour and environmental antisocial behaviour.

He said that when an incident was classed as nusiance or environment, a call back would be done to speak to all the victims, risk assessments would be filled out and reviews done on how the issue can be tackled going forward.

“This is just one of the ways we are stepping up our efforts to tackle antisocial behaviour and improving engagement with the local communities so they can feel part of solution,” CI Cheeseman said.

The force also has the powers to issue civil injunctions, which requires someone committing antisocial behaviour not to do something, such as visit a certain area, as well as community protection notices (CPNs), which are given to persistant offenders with the threat of a criminal punishment.

In 2021, Avon and Somerset Police issued 20 CPNs for antisocial behaviour in Bristol, including five for offences in the city centre. It also served one civil injunction during the year period.

CI Cheeseman said the force could also close properties down. Earlier this year, the force closed Millmead House in Hartcliffe for three months over drug-related crime and anti-social behaviour in the communal areas.

“We have a number of options we can use to tackle antisocial behaviour,” he said. “What is key, though, is that we work closely with the public because without their help and support we won’t achieve results.”

‘It’s worse than ever’ - Read our story tomorrow on people in Bedminster reacting to figures showing the neighbourhood has one of hte highest levels of anti-social behaviour in Bristol