Masterplanning - 10 ways to outfox the hoodies

Planners, designers and developers can respond to this by designing safer places to live in. After planning and design-led interventions on the Northview estate in Swanley, Kent, for example, crime fell 80%.

Here are 10 steps to safer neighbourhoods:

1 Learn from what works and apply it in context

The government’s Safer Places guide contains advice and success stories, so is an excellent starting point. But the most important lesson is that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reducing crime. Actions must be considered in the local context: What is the nature of the crime problem? What are the local priorities? How does the area relate to those that surround it?

2 Engage all the actors

No individual or organisation has all the answers. But they can all contribute. A starting point might be the police, whose architectural liaison officer can investigate local crime patterns and introduce the Secured by Design initiative.

Equally important are local community representatives, businesses, and the local authority’s planners and community safety officers. And no regeneration scheme will work unless skilled designers are employed to make sense of the sometimes contradictory messages that each partner will bring.

3 Get circulation right

The ideal level of permeability in a development is open to question – many routes mean easy access, but can also lead to crime. The key is the provision of clear routes that take people straight to where they want to go. These routes should be shared, bringing cars, cyclists and pedestrians together on active streets. Unnecessary routes, such as segregated footpaths, particularly ones that allow rear access to dwellings, should be avoided.

4 Think about urban structure

How an area is laid out can have an important bearing on crime. Buildings are most vulnerable if they have several sides exposed to the public realm. People are more vulnerable if criminals can operate undetected. This is why traditional block structures that provide private, defensible space in the middle can help reduce crime.

5 Reap the benefits of overlooking

Natural surveillance is the key to safe spaces. Designers need to make it as easy as possible to see from one place to another. Public spaces should be bright and uncluttered, and overlooked by neighbouring buildings and uses. Cars, if parked outside, should be overlooked too. Good lighting is also vital.

6 Promote a sense of ownership

A place is safer if potential offenders feel it is under the supervision or ownership of residents and other users. So reduce the amount of anonymous public space and clearly separate public and private areas. This can be done by erecting physical barriers or psychological ones, such as changes in paving, planting or signage. It is also useful to promote ownership by engendering a sense of identity, by involving local people in design, for example.

7 Make environments secure, but not unattractively so

The best way to make a building secure is by target hardening – fitting secure windows, doors and fences. But physical security, which can increase fear of crime, should not be at the expense of a good quality environment.

8 Encourage the right activity

Crime is deterred by the eyes on the street of people going about their everyday business. But too much activity risks anonymity and can increase the opportunity to commit particular types of crime. Planning has to mediate these potential conflicts with creative solutions. We need to attract as many law-abiding people into streets and spaces as possible.

We need to plan for a good mix, avoiding monocultures that leave places deserted at particular times or certain groups feeling unsafe. The evening economy must be diversified, with shops, cafes and libraries staying open later so that a potentially violent drinking culture does not dominate.

9 Consider management and maintenance from the outset

Management and maintenance, which embrace how a place looks and how it functions over time, need to be considered at the time of the design. Signs of neglect almost always encourage crime and antisocial behaviour. So we need to provide a good quality, well maintained public realm. Initiatives such as neighbourhood wardens, security staff and town centre management are clearly important.

10 Plan imaginatively

Informed by this guidance, as well as some creative thinking, planners can produce more success stories.

By Ben Castell, practice director at planning and design consultancy Llewelyn Davies, and the author of Safer Places: the Planning System and Crime Prevention