The results of the Community Safety Audit conducted around the Battlefords Union Hospital area this year have been released.
They were presented to city council Monday night by the audit’s facilitator Aubrie Boyer.
The safety audit was an initiative of the City of North Battleford working jointly with Battlefords Tribal Council and the RCMP. An initial meeting was held May 6 in which 25 people attended, and the audit was conducted on May 21, 22 and 23.
The focus was on the area concentrated around Battlefords Union Hospital and Connaught School, known locally as the “east side.” The audit area included the area from 106th to 109th Street and 9th to 12th Avenues.
The area was selected due to a high incidence of crime in that vicinity.
The idea was to come up with recommendations to prevent crime, said Boyer, but also to “increase the feeling of safety of crime. A lot of the time, perception is not the same as actual crime numbers.”
The audit used the principles of Crime Prevention through Environmental Design, which looks to changes in the environment in order to reduce crime and promote safety.
Booklets were filled out by community members and “users of the space” on such things as sightlines, lighting, bushes and so on.
Findings included the following:
The feeling of safety depended on the time of the day. Boyer said many people commented that they did not feel safe in the area at night but felt fine during the day.
General comments included “run down, dirty, unkempt, overgrown, scary, older, unsafe.” Yet it was also noted, Boyer said, a certain block of 106th Street was consistently described as well-maintained and safe.
“So it just proves that you have one block that you feel very unsafe in, and then you go two houses down and across the street, and the feeling is completely different,” she said.
Some sixteen recommendations were put forward. Boyer said many of them focused on maintenance of set environments, including trimming bushes and trimming trees around the lights, for example.
The other recommendations had to do with dealing with the number of vacant blocks in the area, as well as recommendations for a public art program and creating more activity around the school area. Boyer also said there was a bit more communication needed between bylaw enforcement, RCMP and the community.
The report was welcomed by councillors including Greg Lightfoot, who commented that “when I went through it, what I realized was just a lot of little things that could be done with regards to the environment that could make a huge difference.”
He noted he had gone around the area and noticed some streetlights were completely blocked by trees. “It does create an unsafe atmosphere,” said Lightfoot.
Even in his own neighbourhood, he commented, there were some streetlights that could be more visible.
The City’s community safety coordinator, Herb Sutton, commented later about the Community Safety Audit in delivering his monthly report.
“I think we’ve learned some things as we’ve gone through the process,” said Sutton.
He also believed some of those things could be applied to the downtown. Downtown went through its own Community Safety Audit last Thursday as part of the work going in towards developing the Downtown Master Plan.
