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"Attending the Safer Redhill partnership event on 26 June as Executive Member for Community Partnerships, I was struck by the passion and ambition of everyone in the room for Redhill and the local community. It's clear that a lot has been achieved over the past 18 months by bringing people, projects and funding streams together. The video shown at the event brought all this to life.
"As the Safer Streets funding period comes to a close, it was great to see that partners are determined to continue working together to take pride in the town centre, to make Redhill even safer and to build community resilience.
"This newsletter will highlight some of the recent activities and the ongoing work of the partnership."
Cllr James Baker, Executive Member for Community Partnerships
Watch the video
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Visit from the Home Office
On 5 June, we welcomed visitors from the Home Office to talk about the Safer Redhill programme. The visitors then took a tour around Redhill accompanied by partner representatives including Cllr James Baker, Inspector Jon Vale, the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, Ellie Vesey-Thompson, and Stuart Kingsley from YMCA East Surrey. They were shown inside the Y-Bus, walked around Memorial Park, where they saw the new solar lighting and the mural, and visited the improved Fairfax Avenue recreation area.
The project adopts the College of Policing's 'Clear, Hold, Build' framework - a three-stage approach where police 'clear' offenders from Redhill and work in tandem with interventions from partners to ensure it remains that way. Shane Roberts, the Home Office National Clear, Hold, Build Policy Lead, who was part of the Home Office delegation, said: "This is one of the best, if not the best, example of a Clear, Hold, Build site nationally."
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Jog On: Surrey Police work to stamp out street-based harassment
Reigate and Banstead officers are leading a new targeted approach to tackle harassment against female runners. Police regularly deploy plain clothed officers into night-time venues to intervene when they spot predatory behaviour. This tactic has now been expanded to involve plain clothed female police officers who have volunteered to go out running in the local area. If they are subject to harassment such as catcalling and sexually suggestive, nearby support crews will assist and deal with the perpetrators.
Officers recently joined women’s walking group Wherever, Whenever Walks to hear about their experiences and we shared some of the work police are doing to prevent violence against women and girls. This is an under-reported crime type and we encourage everyone to report direct incidents to police. Residents can also report areas where they feel unsafe via StreetSafe which helps build our intelligence picture and inform the policing approach.
Borough Commander Jon Vale said: “Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated in Redhill and our local team has spearheaded this initiative which is now being rolled out force-wide. To date, we have made a number of interventions following reports of harassment of our plain clothes runners. In these cases it was deemed appropriate to provide education around anti-social behaviour. For repeat offenders or where the behaviour is more serious, we will robustly pursue all criminal justice outcomes. We recognise this is a significant worry for women and girls, and we’ll continue to patrol running routes throughout Redhill.”
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A continued commitment to local policing
Through the work of the Safer Redhill partnership, we've seen strong success in relation to crime in the town. Over the past year, there has been a 16% reduction in overall crime in Redhill, including a significant drop in serious assaults (-70%), robbery (-56%), shoplifting (-29%) and anti-social behaviour (-19%). Our commitment to strong neighborhood policing remains and recent funding secured by the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has bolstered our approach, ensuring data-driven targeted policing within hotspot areas in Redhill.
We'll continue to build feedback from our community into our policing plans. We've recently analysed the results of our local survey that we ran in March. This showed residents and visitors are feeling safer in Redhill at night and have seen improvements with anti-social behaviour and alcohol-related nuisance. However, there's still more to do to improve overall feelings of safety, including with women and girls, and police are working alongside partners to look into the issues raised, which include parking, CCTV and specific problem areas.
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Since launching in April 2024, YMCA East Surrey's Y Bus has successfully hosted 172 sessions, with 1,315 engagements with young people across Redhill. Visiting key areas such as Cromwell Estate, Timperley Gardens, East Surrey College, and Memorial Park, the Y Bus creates a safe, welcoming environment for open discussion and positive interactions.
Young people have been overwhelming positive about the Y Bus, saying, “I don’t go to any other activities except this but I would like to. Mum doesn't drive so I can't get to any other places” and “I like coming on the bus and talking to staff about things,” highlighting the trust built with the YMCA Youth Workers and how the Y Bus provide activities to young people in their own space.
The good news is that funding has been secured to continue the detached youth work in and around Redhill. The Y-Bus is committed to being a supportive resource for Redhill's youth and there are plans to enhance outreach in schools and a trip to high ropes and bowling over the summer holidays.
Find out more
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Mentoring for vulnerable young people
MENT4 is an award-winning mentoring charity, specialising in working with 11- to 18-year-olds experiencing emotional and behavioural challenges. With a successful track record with engaging youths at risk of delinquency, school non-attendance or exclusion, and those identified as particularly vulnerable.
Funded through Safer Redhill, mentors have worked with East Surrey College and Carrington School to provide 120 hours of one-to-one mentoring for 10 vulnerable young people. In addition they have delivered keynote assemblies at five local schools and colleges, engaging 3,555 young people, raising awareness issues such as gangs, knife crime and county lines with a focus on making positive choices.
We're delighted to announce that Surrey's Police and Crime Commissioner has allocated funding for an additional 20 weeks of one-to-one mentoring at East Surrey College and Carrington School for a further 10 students.
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The campaign to help people understand what ASB is and how they could make a difference by reporting it was developed by key partners working with local agency, The Chain Marketing Agency. It ran between October 2024 and March 2025 (with a testing phase during the summer 2024) and used content showing local partners at work in Redhill.
The campaign ran digitally across partner social media accounts, as well as targeted paid advertising on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) and the Google Display network, and were shown 8.4 million times to Redhill residents and visitors. The campaign was also visible in the town centre on the poster sites around the Harlequin building, in the Belfry, and on banners at the entrance to the park.
There have been more than 16,000 visits to the website since July 2024 and latest survey data shows that 65% of respondents had seen the campaign. In addition,more ASB survey respondents also said they were likely to report anti-social behaviour in April 2025 than 12 months previously.
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The Executive has agreed a way forward to bring The Harlequin Theatre back into use and next steps to create an additional arts and cultural venue in Redhill. The reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) in the theatre will be removed and other essential works carried out at the same time so the theatre can reopen at previous capacity. Deciding how best to deal with the RAAC has been very complex but now we will be working to get the theatre back open as soon as possible in 2027. The Executive also agreed to appoint specialists to market and seek expressions of interest for a third-party to run a new arts and culture venue, to be located in Unit 5 of the Council’s The Rise development in Redhill.
Find out more
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The week-long festival of the arts is set to return to Redhill this October for its third year. Whether you’re an enthusiastic spectator or want to get creative yourself, Arts Takeover has something for everyone. Returning this year, will be the Community art exhibition and young people are invited to submit portraits for the 'This is Me' exhibition at The Belfry, by 30 September. New events will include an Arts Takeover Market Stall and the Redhill's first Recycled Fashion Show where everyone is invited to be a catwalk model and strut their sustainable style. The full line up set to be announced later in the summer.
Find out more
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Free women's self-defence sessions
The third free women's self-defence session, funded by Safer Redhill partnership, will take place on Saturday 19 July at 1.30pm at the Redhill Boxing Club. The sessions are a partnership between Reigate & Banstead Borough Council, the club, Asian Social Group and Growing Health Together Redhill. Following the first course of five sessions held last year, we have decided to run free one-off sessions for the community, the first of which was done in partnership with Sarah Bradford, Housing Support Officer for YMCA East Surrey’s Hillbrook House. Call Eli on 07974 325 000 to book.
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Cromwell Estate Summer event
On Saturday 30 August, the Cromwell Community Group will be hosting an event to bring residents together to showcase the recent improvements that have been made to the park and the estate. Changes to make the area feel safer that were requested by residents and funded by the Safer Redhill partnership, have included nine new solar lights, four new benches, new planting, and the removal of a shelter that encouraged anti-social behaviour.
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Borough Commander Inspector Jon Vale and Sergeant Chris Madeley appear on this week's The Planet Reigate Podcast to talk about local policing plans and the Safer Redhill partnership work, such as YMCA East Surrey's Y-bus and the Public Space Protection Order.
Listen here
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