Mike Jacklin says investment by Rhondda Cynon Taf council has helped create local business crime reduction partnerships 
across the county – with a little help from DISC…
Rhondda Cynon Taf Business Crime Reduction Partnership (RCTBCRP) was created in September 2008 to tackle the problems of town-centre crime throughout the area.
Since then it has evolved and expanded from the Cynon Valley Business Crime Partnership into a scheme helping four towns reduce crime in their town centres through proactive policing and partnership work throughout the Rhondda Cynon Taf unitary authority.Rhondda Cynon Taf Business Crime Reduction Partnership (RCTBCRP) was created in September 2008 to tackle the problems of town-centre crime throughout the area.
In 2005 Aberdare’s town centre police station closed for refurbishment – in a town where crime had steadily began to increase. Much of this increase was in shoplifting and anti-social behaviour. Retailers voiced their concerns to the local council and it was agreed that some kind of action was needed.
As a result the council helped set up a Business Crime Reduction Partnership (BCRP) pilot scheme in Aberdare. According to Mike Jacklin,
Mike Jacklin: the ‘glue’ that holds together a single scheme covering four towns
RCTBCRP’s Crime Reduction Manager, the results were impressive.
“In the first two years of the scheme we saw a 30% reduction in retail theft in the town centre, commercial burglary was reduced by 15.6%, and retailers reported stock-losses below targets and company averages. One national retailer even reported a reduction in shrinkage from 3.4% to 0.9% in the first year”.
Interest from neighbouring towns grew as news of this success spread – as well as a realisation among them that displaced offenders from Aberdare were only moving into neighbouring shopping area, such as Pontypridd. Thus, Pontypridd was welcomed into the scheme in 2007, shortly followed by retailers in Talbot Green. And in 2012 the Merthyr Tydfil BID – “The Big Heart of Merthyr” – also came on board.
The success of RCTBCRP – today RCTBCRP boasts over 140 members, across seven individual schemes comprising pub and stopwatch members as well as retailers – has been thanks to the businesses across the region, but also to the support of the county council in pulling the partnership together.
Mike Jacklin is himself employed by Rhondda Cynon Taf County Borough. He sees himself as the ‘glue’ that holds the scheme together.
“We’re an umbrella organisation for all the individual town groups and their members; the heads of those groups form the board of the RCTBCRP. My role is to run the exclusion schemes, and to support the members in working with the local authority and the police, and also to make the whole scheme self-sufficient.”
So why would the council need to be involved at all? Mike is clear as to the benefits of the Council’s involvement: “It’s all about creating safer town centres,
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