Community Wardens

The Community Warden Scheme’s main priorities are to reduce litter and anti-social behaviour. Community Wardens are the ‘eyes and ears’ of the community, providing a visible uniformed presence on the streets. We aim to make people feel safer, deter crime, tackle anti-social behaviour and help to keep Crawley clean and tidy. We are a friendly and approachable point of contact for all residents who need advice.

The Warden Service is accredited by Sussex Police. See below for further details.

The 12-strong team undertake a range of tasks focussing on litter, fly-tipping, removal of irresponsibly abandoned cars and vans from our streets and many other anti-social problems as well as dealing with stray dogs.

Community Wardens patrol the town’s streets between 7.30am and 10pm seven days a week and even offer their dog handling skills to neighbouring authorities.

Community Wardens issue fixed penalty notices for litter and dog fouling. They will also be hot on the tracks of pedlars, street traders and taxi drivers who may be breaching their licence conditions or relevant legislation and will investigate the selling and repairing of cars on the streets illegally. Community Wardens investigate all illegal encampments of travellers and people camping in tents.

RSPCA Gold Footprint Award

Crawley Borough Council community wardens have received a gold award from the RSPCA for their stray dogs service. The RSPCA said in its award letter, “Crawley Borough Council provides a comprehensive collection service for stray dogs in the Crawley area and this warrants a gold award.”

The Stray Dogs Footprint covers the policies and procedures that ensure stray dog welfare is protected from collection to conclusion, including kennelling, both during and out of office hours, as well as swift treatment of injured and sick dogs. It also focuses on proactive work to educate the public and preventative measures to reduce long-term straying. It recognises organisations that have gone above and beyond their basic service requirements to ensure higher animal welfare standards.

Did you know that littering is a crime?

The most commonly found litter is cigarettes - 200 million cigarette butts and cigarette related litter is dropped every day across the UK.

Any type of litter takes a long time to disappear naturally, so whatever the material the right thing to do is not to drop it in the first place.

Items you can be fined for:

• Chewing gum
• Cigarette butts
• Food wrappers
• Bags of rubbish fly tipped on the street

You can be fined £80 if you do not put your litter in the bin. If the litter bin doesn’t have an ashtray, stub your cigarette out properly and put it inside the bin. You can also be fined if you throw litter out of your car – your licence number tells us who you are.

DROP IT AND COP IT - WE WILL FINE LITTER LOUTS

Did you know that failure to remove dog faeces is illegal?

Dogs (Fouling of Land) Act 1996

• Dog fouling is unpleasant and irresponsible.
• Leave it behind and you could get fined £50
• Hanging poo bags on tree branches is unacceptable
• Dog fouling can cause blindness as dog faeces may contain worms that can cause a threat to human health
• The minority of irresponsible dog owners who do not clean up after their dogs damage the reputation of responsible dog owners
• Not seeing your dog foul is not an excuse
• Never let your dog out alone to toilet
• Always carry a means to clear up after your dog, whether this is a simple plastic bag or a poop scoop device
• Do not rely on the rain to wash it away – this is just a lazy excuse to not pick it up

Bag it, bin it!

For information about anti-social behaviour including ball games please view the Anti-social Behaviour page .

Sussex Police Community Safety Scheme Accredited

Crawley Borough Council has been successfully re-accredited under the Sussex Police Community Safety Accreditation Scheme for a further two years. This means CBC wardens can continue to use a range of additional powers to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Details of the Accreditation
Crawley Borough Council is known as an ‘accredited employer’ with twelve Community Wardens as ‘accredited employees’. The Community Wardens can continue to use the following powers:

• Power to require the name and address of a person whom an accredited person has reason to believe has committed a ‘relevant offence’ (such as causing injury, alarm or distress to any other person or the loss or damage to any person’s property, or the relevant Fixed Penalty Offence)
• Power to require the name and address of a person acting in an anti-social manner
• Power to require persons drinking in a designated place to surrender alcohol and to dispose of any alcohol surrendered
• Power to require persons aged under 18 to surrender alcohol and to dispose of any alcohol surrendered
• Power to seize tobacco from a person aged under 16 and to dispose of it

All these powers fall within section 46 of the Police Reform Act 2002 and are not over and above those in use by Police Community Support Officers in Sussex Police. Find out more about the powers of a Community Warden .

What does this mean for me?

The idea behind the scheme is to improve the way that the police and Crawley Council work together to tackle community safety and share intelligence, plus giving Community Wardens additional powers to deal with issues that are important to the community.

Crawley Borough Council has an excellent working relationship with Sussex Police. Members of the public should be aware of the close relationship that is shared with Sussex Police including intelligence sharing. Joint taskings and briefings are held to find out known hotspots for anti-social behaviour.

It is vital that members of the public know that it is a criminal offence not to comply with the accredited instructions of the Community Wardens.

Report it!

To report a problem now, click on the link below to fill in the form:

• Antisocial Behaviour Reporting Form

To report an abandoned vehicle, call freephone 0800 5875 888 or click to visit www.sussex.police.uk where you can report it online.

Contact 0800 5875 888 to report anti-social behaviour during normal office hours.

Contact Community Wardens for an urgent response, 07:30 to 22:00 7 days a week on 07884 492324.