Crime Prevention through Environmental Design

Safety and security are essential to successful, sustainable communities. Not only are such places well designed, attractive environments to live and work in, they are also places where freedom from crime, and from the fear of crime, improves the quality of life.

Designing out crime and designing in community safety should be central to the planning and delivery of new development. Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 requires all local authorities to exercise their functions with due regard to their likely effect on crime and disorder.

Planning can contribute directly to crime prevention through the following tools:

• Development plan policies
• Supplementary planning documents
• Pre-application discussions and negotiations
• Development control decision making
• Planning conditions and obligations
• Planning can also influence crime prevention by working in partnership with the Police and other agencies

We are currently preparing a Design SPD which will set out support for crime prevention through design.