The ideas and designs of five local youngsters have been used to create a special leaflet aimed at steering young people in Suffolk Coastal away from anti-social behaviour.

The full-colour ASBO Wot Eva leaflet was launched this week (Tuesday) at Woodbridge’s Seckford Hall when a specially invited audience saw the first copies of the leaflets that will be distributed around the district.

“The Suffolk Coastal Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) wanted to create a leaflet that explained to young people what anti-social behaviour is, its consequences and how to report it,” said Cllr Sherrie Green a Board Member of the Suffolk Coastal Local Strategic Partnership.

“We thought that the best people to help us get this important message across was our local youngsters so we held a competition asking for designs for a leaflet. The standard of entries to the competition was extremely high and elements of the best four have all been used. The competition winners not only got prizes but also worked with Suffolk Police to finalise the design.

“ASBO Wot Eva has taken the best of the winning designs and will help young people in Suffolk Coastal better understand the issues around anti-social behaviour and its consequences. I would thank Terry, Gemma, Becky, Eloise and Ellen for their efforts which hopefully will help further reduce anti-social behaviour in our district,” added Cllr Green.

Last December Gemma and Becky Oakes, aged 13 from Dennington, were joint first prize-winners with Eloise Vest, aged 11, years from Martlesham, with each receiving a MP3 player, while Ellen Wright, aged 14, from Felixstowe and Terry Dean, aged 12, also from Felixstowe, were both given music vouchers after finishing second and third respectively.

Gemma and Becky entered the competition through the Framlingham Youth Club and Framlingham Area Youth Action Partnership and Terry entered through the Level 2 Youth Project in Felixstowe.

The total crime rates in Suffolk Coastal are among the lowest in the country but reducing anti-social behaviour is one of the main targets of the CDRP whose partners have carried out a number of initiatives. This approach has shown some success recently with the total crime statistics for the district showing a nine per cent drop in the last year, and the public perception of vandalism, graffiti and other deliberate damage to property dropping by 27 per cent over the last three years to only 20 per cent.

It is hoped that the leaflet will also be used by some of the CDRP’s partners in other parts of the county to promote the anti-social behaviour message. The CDRP is part of the Suffolk Coastal LSP. Follow this link to see theASBO Wot Eva leaflet (PDF 922kb).