The City of North Battleford has been active this year in the area of crime prevention through environmental design.
The City has been implementing those principles in an effort to reduce crime and build a safer environment for citizens. Recently, City representatives attended an international conference in Calgary, Alta. to gain more knowledge about those principles.
The conference, Oct 19 and 20, was the International Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design conference. It included delegations and presenters from South Korea, the United Kingdom, Honduras, South Africa, Philadelphia, Calgary, Edmonton and Saskatoon.
According to the City’s news release, the delegations and presenters brought their experiences from a broad range of professions, from academia to workers on the ground, providing perspectives on what CPTED can accomplish and what pitfalls to avoid.
Among the City’s representatives at the conference was Tim Yeaman who, in a statement, said “this really opened my eyes to similar issues we all face regardless of where we live, what country we are from.”
“There was not one negative comment that we received and other countries like Honduras are very interested in our approach to bringing life back to parts of our community through projects like the community garden project and the implementation of the CPTED principles in helping to identify areas of opportunity.”
He is referring to the community garden behind the Lighthouse, a CPTED project developed earlier this year that North Battleford was able to highlight at the conference.
This project was developed by the City in partnership with the Battlefords Lighthouse, Bee-J's Office Plus, Minute Muffler, Lifetime Fitness and Downtown North Battleford, business improvement district.
The City’s delegation was also able to highlight the positive impacts already seen in the neighbourhood, as well as lessons learned.
