Minister Helen McEntee visits Waterford’s Local Community Safety Partnership
Minister Helen McEntee visits Waterford’s Local Community Safety Partnership in the beautiful vestibule of the Theatre Royal.
The Minister was welcomed by Deputy Mayor Cllr Seanie Power who said that the strong community spirit that exists in Waterford makes it ‘an ideal place to be chosen as a pilot site for the Community Safety Partnership and by working together people, communities and agencies we can deliver an even safer Waterford for all’.
The Local Community Safety Partnership is a government initiative that brings together statutory services, the voluntary and community sector, local councillors and community members to work together to identify and tackle community safety issues locally. Local Community Safety Partnerships are being piloted in three areas: Waterford City and County, Longford County, and Dublin’s North Inner City Local Electoral Area. The Waterford pilot is supported by the Department of Justice and Waterford City and County Council.
Chairperson of the Waterford LCSP, Sean Aylward, said that the Ministers visit showed the support of the Department of Justice to the new initiative and it proved a great opportunity for the Partnership members to meet the Minister.
Minister McEntee commented that work of the Community Safety Partnerships will ‘build on the wonderful work of the JPC’s’ and said that the Department of Justice was committed to community safety.
Mr Aylward confirmed that the Waterford LCSP are in the process of developing a community safety plan and would be seeking input from the people of Waterford, ‘It is important that the people of Waterford feed into the development of a plan that is essentially being developed for them and their communities’. He asked that people engage with the on-line survey that would be advertised soon and the ‘town hall’ meetings that will take place across Waterford City and County Council.