Hampshire's nuisance hotspots in Portsmouth and Southampton revealed in new figures from crime commissioner

The worst-hit areas for anti-social behaviour – when broken down by local authority wards – are in Portsmouth and Southampton.

Charles Dickens in Portsmouth, and Bargate and Bevois in Southampton are the three which saw the most anti-social behaviour incidents reported in the last year.

From stolen bikes and motorbikes to dangerous driving and illegal races, 23,770 anti-social behaviour incidents were reported in Hampshire last year.

Specifically, from July to December 2022, 1,588 incidents were in Portsmouth.

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During the police and crime panel on Friday (May 12), data was released. They showed that the most nuisance-plagued wards were Charles Dickens with 725, followed by Bargate with 688, Bevois with 444, Hilsea with 419, St Thomas with 303 and Nelson with 288.

Compared to previous years – 2021 – numbers have reduced in all wards and the county. However, not all parts of Hampshire have seen a reduction since figures from the Safer City Partnership annual review show that in 2021/22, Southampton had an overall crime rate of 136 crimes per 1,000 population.

Cllr Dave Shields, representing Southampton city council, said: ‘In Southampton, there is no community speed watch, possibly because it has not been a priority, and recently it has become a community concern.

‘Regularly, Southampton looks like a Monte Carlo race track with people with their high-performance cars who can afford luxury apartments in Ocean Village using the roads to race each other.

‘We also have what residents call ‘rat running’ in residential areas where people are cutting through there with great frequency and a lot of frustration about the inability to address that.

‘I wonder how we can perhaps look at a community speed watch which adapts to the urban challenges that we face.

‘The number of fatalities in Southampton has been increasing year on year over the last 10 or 15 years.’

To tackle anti-social behaviour, the commissioner granted Southampton £100,000 for introducing new speed cameras on key junctions where both speed and jumping red lights are an issue.

Community Speed Watch groups were given four handheld Bushnell guns and reflective safety to residents groups to assist them in setting up new schemes in areas where local communities are concerned about speeding in their areas.

Also, a new average speed camera scheme through the Meon Valley should be opened by the end of this year. The cost of this project was £600,000.