DESPITE a significant reduction in the crime rate, residents on the city’s southside housing estates within the Limerick Regeneration remit, continue to experience fears of being a victim of crime and anti-social behaviour. A major research report on community safety in Limerick city, undertaken by University of Limerick lecturers, Dr Martin Power and Dr Cliona Barnes,
which documents the most pressing concerns related to community safety, examines residents’ experiences and evaluation of the existing community safety frameworks.
The report, which is entitled, Feeling Safe in Our Community, begins the process of auditing concerns related to community safety in and around the southside regeneration estates in Limerick.
“A key issue for many of the residents is the visibility of the regeneration project, which has a real value for people living in the communities in question,” says Dr Power, who adds:
“The symbolic value of physical regeneration for the residents is the sense that something is being done and that they, as a community, have not been forgotten.
“Significantly, our study has identified major misunderstandings on the part of many residents about which agency has responsibility for addressing the various issues in the estates – in particular, the provision of information about the social regeneration project and the initiatives that are being undertaken, needs to be vastly improved”.
The report examines a number of themes, including residents’ fears / perceptions of crime; the behaviour of minors and poor parenting; the impact of the physical environment and of the estates stigmatised identity in the creation of fear, and the impact of State response to lack of safety in the estates.
