IMPROVING the night time economy, helping families in need and ensuring Waveney is 'a safe place to live and work' will continue to be high on the agenda of the Waveney Community Safety Partnership in 2009.

IMPROVING the night time economy, helping families in need and ensuring Waveney is 'a safe place to live and work' will continue to be high on the agenda of the Waveney Community Safety Partnership in 2009.

Planning for the year ahead, Alan Osborne - the east partnership co-ordinator with Suffolk Constabulary - said that the group had met to discuss the 'main issues' for the district in the next year.

'We also had a look at what we have been doing well over the previous year and where we still need to improve,' Mr Osborne said.

Reflecting on their successes in 2008, which had seen the Waveney CSP awarded the 'Partnership of the Year' by the Suffolk Criminal Justice Board, Mr Osborne said: 'This recognised the good work being done in Waveney and the fact that the Community Safety Partnership was the only one to achieve its targets under the first Local Area Agreement.

'We did however agree that there were still areas that we needed to improve, the main one being letting you all know what we are doing and how you can help support us.

'So we hope to continue our partnership with the Lowestoft Journal, which lets us keep you informed of the important issues each week, we will make more use of Waveney Partnership TV and we will try to do more within the community to promote the work we do,' Mr Osborne added.

The priorities that have been agreed for the partnership in 2009 will be:

A safer night time economy

Supporting young people

A focus on priority neighbourhoods

Helping vulnerable families

Substance misuse including alcohol.

'Our aim over the next year is to keep Waveney a safe place to live and work,' Mr Osborne concluded.