Safer Neighbourhoods
Methodology
The starting point for the community definition exercise was to use a blank canvas. The use of any existing boundary as a starting point would only have served to skew the analysis to that relevant boundary type. It is abundantly clear that Output Areas do not have any basis in true community boundaries.
The document Neighbourhood Policing. Your police; your community; our commitment. Published by the Home Office in 2005 states that ‘local communities, police forces, police authorities and partners should decide what neighbourhoods mean rather than being told by the Government”
Based on a detailed local knowledge of Bolton representing over 150 of residence within the borough the new draft community boundaries have been formulated. These were generated using a very simple process using a marker pen and some maps.
Map 1 below displays the initial set of boundaries generated by the above exercise. The map displays 33 areas defined on a community basis. Wherever possible the boundaries of these areas follow the existing ‘hard’ boundaries such as rivers and roads.
The map represents the first iteration of the proposed new community boundaries for Bolton. It is however recognized that this process has been conceived in isolation from other Council service providers. The boundaries therefore serve as a starting point to open up the discussion to a wider audience.
True community based service delivery means more than extra frontline resources or public reassurance. It means becoming more effective at joint services provision by working directly with and harnessing the energies of local communities. It means reconfiguring the whole relationship between the individual citizen, the local neighbourhood and service providers.