Local Longford area has been selected for the Community Safety Place Standard Tool

Edgeworthstown is benefitting from a truly unique pilot programme entitled the Community Safety Place Standard Tool as it is the only area in Ireland that has been selected for the initiative.

Janine Bartley, the Local Community Safety Partnership (LCSP) Coordinator for Longford County Council, delivered a presentation at last week's monthly meeting of Ballymahon Municipal District in Edgeworthstown Library.

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She said the Longford Community Safety Partnership is involved in a pilot with Public Health Scotland and the Community Safety Network there to pilot this tool, Scotland's key framework for assessing community well-being

"We are the only ones in the Republic of Ireland that are doing it.

"So the Place Standard Tool exists and this is a community safety specific led [initiative].

"It's a way of looking at a place over 14 different themes and investigating what works well in the community and what we can do better."

Ms Bartley said they also held a pilot walkability audit in Edgeworthstown on November 5 last, which went positively and that is another element.

"We've been partnered with the Town Centre First programme, the libraries and the Eternal programme because we have cross company objectives across all of those programmes.

Ms Bartley stated Cllr Paul Ross represents the Ballymahon Municipal District very well on the Community Safety Partnership.
She described community safety as "building strong, cohesive, vibrant and participatory communities where homes, roads, public spaces and the workplace are safe and feel safe".

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Ms Bartley said as opposed to relying on An Garda Síochána, community safety is a collaborative culture of prevention, early intervention and pro-social initiatives

"We've consulted locally to identify and prioritise those safety needs and we've developed a Community Safety Plan.

"We're now moving into a phase where we are going to do a second consultation and develop our next Community Safety Plan.

"Tools like this are a really important consultation element for us."

Ms Bartley said the Community Safety Partnership model has been successful in Northern Ireland, Scotland, across the UK and in Australia so we're learning from them as well.

"Communities are the key stakeholders so we're looking at geographic, key target groups, issues based groups, small areas and there is always an urban and rural split on what the needs are."

Ms Bartley stated the place standard tool provides a 'safer framework to have conversations about place' and on the walkability audit they walk several routes, observe areas and make comments and 'score as they go along'.

She stated she was surprised how unsafe she felt while walking along the N4.

"While we are doing this and looking at the safety element it's really helpful for informing our Age Friendly Strategy, anything that we do in terms of public realm, universal design, all of these things feed in welk because we are working with people on the ground and hearing what they have to say."

Ms Bartley said Edgeworthstown is up against towns in counties Cork, Limerick and Wexford to be selected for the full roll out of the programme and there are 'quite a few buildings ready to be improved' and she is hopeful they will be successful.

She told local representatives any letters of support would be greatly appreciated.

Councillor Paul Ross asked about the walkability audit in relation to the local train station.

"The biggest issue you outlined was crossing the N4, would CIE put a bridge over the N4?

Ms Bartley replied that they "only owned as far as the footpath and after that it is owned by Transport Infrastructure Ireland".

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"I would say with the amount of heavy traffic coming in a bridge wouldn't work."

Cllr Mick Cahill praised the excellent engagement.

"Local input and buy-in is so important here."

Cllr Martin Skelly and Cllr Sean Mimnagh also praised the presentation and the ongoing work.