Homepage | Resident News | Last Update: 20 May 2025
This page is a private exchange and conversation for residents of The Danes, Basingstoke, and provides an opportunity to consider particular issues in more detail, and a way to voice opinions.
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The following relates to anti-social behaviour at The Danes reported by the community.
For emergencies phone 999 or 112.
If you are concerned about anti-social behaviour, contact the police on 101, or Basingstoke local authority's community safety officer on 01256 845245. You may also email: community.safety@basingstoke.gov.uk.
A council 'Community Trigger' only arises when anti-social behaviour is reported to the police on more than 3 occasions in a 6 month period. The Danes Management monitor Community Triggers and will also report the matter if they are made aware and observe an issue has not been reported to the police, but this will take longer. The form below on this website also assists residents by helping to alerting management of issues.
The police and local authority record each report. This informs them about the frequency and seriousness of the problem. The council can then commit a Community Safety Police Officer to attend the estate with the information of when individuals are congregating, or most likely to cause concern.
When communication has been made or sent to the police and/or local authority anti-social behaviour team, please ensure The Management are also informed of the situation by emailing: thedanes@spmplayfield.com
Where the property is tenanted, copy your landlord and/or lettings agent. This will ensure they are also made aware of the issue, and will serve your interests in any future communication.
MARCH 2025 UPDATE: COMMUNITY PETROL
Following reports to the council from members of The Danes community, a community officer has been assigned to patrol the area regularly.
Position of The Danes Management
A paraphrased summary of the management's statements follow:
It has been brought to our attention that non-residents visited a property located on the estate, the underground car park, and stairwells. These non-residents do not appear to be usual visitors, but rather gather to purchase illicit materials.
The Management have considered multiple options:
The installation of grills across all the open balcony spaces may not be desirable. On this basis The Danes Management are obtaining quotes for the installation of hedging to prevent non-residents from entering the estate from Festival Way, and on completion, installation of communal door locks.
The amended plan:
The first three items above are to be introduced during the last quarter of 2025 to allow the hedges to receiving natural watering through October and November. A gated entrance to the whole estate would then be considered in 2026 once these works have been completed and an assessment made of how effective the hedging has been to reduce the problem.
The Danes UK Editorial Opinion
While appreciating the concerns expressed by residents, and the increased foot falls of visitors on occasion, the editor has not directly experienced any anti-social behaviour at The Danes. Please use the form below if your own experience differs.
The editor's response to the initial proposal was that erecting a grill across all the open balconies seemed premature and potentially detrimental, not only in terms of security, but also to the daily experience of residents. There seemed no functional value of a barrier other than on the ground floor, and even here this had disadvantages.
Erecting a 'grill' seemed counter productive if the design of barriers did not enhance safety and improve the quality of life for residents. The open balcony areas on the ground floor allow for an emergency escape route for residents in case of personal risk and fire. A poor choice of barrier could have caused visitors and residents to feel trapped. At present, while the open balconies that run alongside the front doors of the flats may allow strangers to enter, this is physically challenging.
The ground floor open-air corridors encourage a sense of personal safety. By placing a grill along the open-air corridors to block entry, it would be necessary for residents to travel along the whole corridor to exit, and this could potentially be blocked in the case of an emergency such as a fire, or in a threatening or antisocial manner at either end.
Like all good architectural improvements, any barrier should take into account functional need, and the positive affect a well designed solution would have on both the residents, and the local environment. Here are some important points that were raised on the residents' behalf:
The Danes Management previously proposed that a barrier for the ground floor be erected before new secure doors were installed. On behalf of the community, the editor suggested that installing new doors should be the first stage, rather than following the erection of barriers that involve more complex and costly changes.
The first obstacle to the internal estate are the doors. Installing new secure doors may well be enough to deter anti-social entry to the estate because entering The Danes over the existing corridor ground floor walls and metal railings is not at all easy.
One last observation. Crown Heights is undergoing an improvement project that will last two years. This work has resulted in a significant increase in site security that may have led to the movement of certain anti-social activities to other neighbourhoods. Crown Heights prior to this period had not enjoyed open access like The Danes and is far more 'secure' in terms of entry and exit. Locks on the doors and enclosed corridors (both proposed at The Danes) have not however resulted in a reduction to the kinds of problems the community at The Danes have encountered.
Secure doors may for example deter some new visitors, but unwelcome visitors may easily be given or acquire the codes. The challenge is how to make The Danes an uncomfortable place to carry out anti-social activates. Police and community officer patrols may act as a deterrent, but considering additional ways to counter the increase in footfalls of unwelcome visitors will have a more lasting and positive impact to The Danes community. Increased CCTV monitoring may for example be one of the measures under consideration, however residents may feel uncomfortable about the potential intrusion to their privacy.
If you have any feedback or suggestions about any of the issues raised here, or you wish the community to consider other issues, please use the form below to express them, and these may be presented here on this webpage, as well as being passed on to The Danes Management for consideration.
Mike
Editor
www.TheDanes.UK
Use the contact form below to provide further feedback, or to comment on the items on this webpage. If you are reporting an anti-social incident, please provide the day, time, location, in addition to a description of what you observed.
Although this form can be completed without including your personal name and email (simply enter 'resident' in the name field), more weight will be given to information that can be verified as from a particular resident.
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