§ Mr. JenkinsTo ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many calls the Together Action Line has received since its inception. [172500]
§ Ms BlearsFrom 3 March 2004 to 3 May 2004 the Together Action Line has dealt with 1,531 calls and 261 emails. Within this number there have been some notable successes
In March, the ASB coordinator from Portsmouth attended a Together Academy event and learnt about new crack house, closure powers. The following day she called the Action Line for some advice on procedure. Within hours, they had their first closure orderIn April, Swansea Safer Partnership contacted the Action Line about the procedure for obtaining a closure order on a property which was causing serious nuisance. This included intimidation and harassment of residents, drug paraphernalia and other dangerous items lying around, as well as high numbers of people entering and leaving the premises. CCTV footage showed up to 100 visitors in a 24-hour period. The ActionLine advised Swansea on the process and sent through a detailed example of how a similar problem had been tackled elsewhere. Safer Swansea Partnership secured a closure order—the first one in Wales.