Community Tasking Groups

What are they?

The police and council want more people to get involved with telling them where problems are in their local communities.

To encourage people to do this they have set up four “Tasking Groups” in the Cosham, Fratton, Central and Southsea areas of the city.

These groups will come together fortnightly to discuss local problems that residents, local councillors, police officers, housing officers, fire fighters, anti-social behaviour unit officers, clean city officers, youth workers, community wardens and other community workers feel need sorting out.

All these people will be community champions, helping to solve issues such as anti-social behaviour.

When they have discussed what problems there are, police and council officers, including trading standards and the youth service, can then sort the issues out appropriately.

This is all part of the police’s work with partner agencies, building the Safer Neighbourhoods and Neighbourhood Policing Teams.

 

Why do we need Tasking Groups?

Tasking Groups are an important way of getting the local community to work together with their Safer Neighbourhood Team to solve their own problems.

The government’s Respect task force has asked neighbourhoods to take more accountability of their own solutions to problems and locally focused Tasking Groups are one way to do this.

 

How does it work?

If a person, place or organisation in the city – within the four Cosham, Fratton, Central and Southsea areas – has ongoing problems with, for example, youth nuisance, graffiti or noisy neighbours then they can take their issues to their local Tasking Group.

The Tasking Group will discuss these issues and the group’s priorities, put together an action list and then “task” staff to find a solution to those problems and report back in a fortnight on their progress.

 

How to contact your Tasking Group

There are a number of ways to take your problems to your Tasking Group:

• Contact a local councillor here
• Talk to a neighbourhood police officer or Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) on 0845 045 45 45 or click here
• Ring the council’s helpdesk on 023 9282 2251
• Talk to your local neighbourhood forum by clicking here
• Contact your local community warden on 0800 587 0147 for the northern part of the city and 0800 085 3840 for everywhere else
• Talk to a youth worker on 023 9283 4914
• Speak to a housing officer on 023 9283 4989 or email them at housing@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
• Contact your community involvement team on 023 9284 1451 or email a volunteer at voluntary.sector@portsmouthcc.gov.uk