The Royal Borough to become safer with the help of community wardens

The Royal Borough of Windsor & Maidenhead’s team of community wardens are changing their focus so they can be more effective responding to those issues blighting residents and communities the most.

This change, which comes into force on 1 June, follows a redesign of the service giving the team greater scope to concentrate on preventing anti-social behaviour and crime, monitor enforcement, support community initiatives, and foster meaningful relationships with residents.

They will continue to patrol weekdays from 8am and 9pm so will still be on hand during evenings to provide reassurance in parks and open spaces to disrupt potential anti-social behaviour. They will also be available weekends for special or critical events.

Councillor David Cannon, cabinet member for public protection and parking, said: “We know residents respect and value our community wardens because of their fantastic grass roots work. Not only do residents feel, and are safer, but they provide the human link between us and our communities.

“Redefining their role means they’ll be able to concentrate more on the priority areas of the greatest concern to residents.”

The borough’s community wardens are equipped with body-worn video, radios, mobiles, and basic first aid pouches. Their varied role includes:

• Making welfare checks if social services is unable to do so
• Delivering medication and food to vulnerable and elderly residents
• Reacting to residents’ concerns of youth gatherings and associated anti-social behaviour
• Addressing non-compliance of Public Spaces Protection Orders
• Promoting advice at community events on personal and community safety, including scams and cyber-crime
• Supporting the work of the Community Safety Partnership around violent crime, and tackling youth violence including knife crime
• Positive engagement with rough sleepers, and managing behaviours such as aggressive begging and obstructing highways.

The Community Wardens are CSAS (Community Safety Accreditation Scheme) trained as part of their authority. This means, when exercising enforcement, it is an offence to withhold your name and address from them when asked.