Designing safer places
The Council places issues of crime prevention and community safety at the heart of the local planning process and aims to create safe and accessible environments, where crime and disorder or the fear of crime does not undermine quality of life or community cohesion.
Local Development Framework Policy CP17: 'Design' - states any new development will be required to 'be safe and secure in its design and contribute to community safety.'
Local Development Framework Policy DC63: 'Delivering Safer Places' - states 'Planning permission will only be granted for proposals which where necessary include well designed security features.'
The Designing Safer Places Supplementary Planning Document provides further guidance.
As part of the Council's local validation requirements, all major planning applications require a Safer Places Statement in order to be made validated.
This shows how community safety and crime prevention have been considered in the design of the proposal and how the design reflects the attributes of safe, sustainable places as set out in Safer Places - The Planning System and Crime Prevention.
Metropolitan Police and the Secured by Design scheme
The Metropolitan Police - Designing Out Crime Officers are formally consulted on a wide range of proposals and their response can be a significant material consideration in the planning application process.
The Designing Out Crime Officers offer a free professional service designed to reduce the impact of crime and anti-social behaviour within the borough and deliver safe, strong, sustainable
communities by applying the principles and practices of 'crime prevention through environmental design'.
- Planning applicants should contact the Designing Out Crime Officers as early as possible in the design/application process to discuss such matters.
The Secured by Design scheme is the official UK Police flagship initiative supporting the principles of 'designing out crime' and is administered by the Designing Out Crime Officers.
In Havering it can be a planning condition that a new development achieves Secured by Design accreditation.
Secured by Design focuses on crime prevention at the design, layout and construction stages of homes and commercial premises and promotes the use of security standards for a wide range of
applications and products.
This works best if balanced with the need to achieve desirable places to live, work and visit, without creating a fortress mentality.
The Secured by Design scheme functions on two levels:
- A licensing scheme for products which meet police preferred specifications
- An award given to developers who build to Secured by Design standards
There are no charges involved in seeking the advice of the Designing Out Crime Officers or in applying for Secured by Design accreditation.
- The Secured by Design guidelines, details of licensed companies and other useful information, can be found by visiting the Secured by design website.
Interactive toolkit
To view an interactive toolkit which shows some of the main principles of crime prevention through environmental design please visit the Secured by design website.
Further information
For further information on Designing Safer Places or the Secured by Design scheme, please contact the North East London Designing Out Crime Office, 020 8217 3813 docomailbox.se@met.police.uk