Move to curb hooligans 'a success'

The Dark Nights project has been run in the city for the last few years, and includes input from council staff, police, firefighters, youth offending workers, Trading Standards and Sheffield Homes, which runs council housing.

Figures to be presented to councillors this week show that the number of deliberate fires dealt with over the seven-day period was cut by a quarter, while other problems decreased in comparison to last year. The period between October 31 and November 5 has historically been a difficult one for the public authorities, with problems surrounding trick or treating, Mischief Night on November 4 and Bonfire Night on November 5.

According to council figures, levels of anti-social behaviour rocket by about 22 per cent during the week, with a quarter of those extra incidents related to fireworks and illegal and dangerous bonfires close to homes.

Last year's Dark Nights scheme ran from October 30 to November 7 and saw a special command team was set up to ensure that the right people responded to different types of incidents.

In a report on this year's scheme, Simon Mitchell, Sheffield Council's safer neighbourhoods manager says much of the success of the 2009 operation was made possible by careful planning by the organisations involved.

The report says: "The overall aim of Project Dark Nights is to make Halloween and Bonfire night a safe and enjoyable experience an to minimise levels of anti-social behaviour, which is consistently high during this period year on year.

"The four key objectives were to keep calls regarding anti-social behaviour down, minimise the risk of harm to members of the community, provide a visible presence over the period and facilitate lawful activities and enjoyment."

Mr Mitchell says that four operational groups were set up to respond to problem incidents, and were directed by a "silver command" which included senior officers from the police, fire brigade and the council.

The operational groups were based at four strategic headquarters throughout the week and were sent out to deal with emergency calls about illegal bonfires, firework nuisance and other anti-social problems.

Another team was engaged to provide so-called "diversionary activities" in areas most often blighted by trouble around Halloween and Bonfire Night, with youth service staff actively encouraging youngsters off the streets.

Mr Mitchell's report says: "An extensive programme of diversionary activities was planned and delivered throughout the Dark Nights period to proactively reduce levels of anti-social behaviour with the aim of diverting young people away from unlawful activity.

"Activity Sheffield organised Blast Off, a five-a-side football tournament across all seven community areas of the city. The finals event, held on october 30 between 6pm and 9pm was a huge success, attended by 180 children.

Statistics gathered over the Dark Nights period show that overall incidents of anti-social behaviour in the city hit a total of 740, a level which Mr Mitchell says is "low in comparison to previous years".

Figures show that there were 63 incidents recorded by the command team as "anti-social behaviour fires" over the seven-night period, which compares to 202 deliberately set fires in 2007 and 86 in 2008.

Mr Mitchell says: "The majority of fires during the Dark Nights period occurred on November 5 and 6, between the hours of 5pm and 10pm. The peak days and times have remained consistent in 2007, 2008 and 2009.

"The types of fires were mainly in refuse or rubbish containers such as wheelie bins and the operational teams reported large numbers of wheelie bin fires."

The report says that 25,000 was provided by the council's Safer and Sustainable Communities department with 10,000 paying for the operational costs of the scheme, with 15,000 being spent on publicity for diversionary events. A further 6,000 was spent to ensure that vehicles and staff were available from the council to support emergency services.