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Burglars are a devious lot, but you can limit their opportunities to prosper. Even relatively simple action can dramatically cut crime in your housing stock, as Staffordshire-based Aspire Housing has found.

In February 2000, the association was approached by the local probation service to take part in its Prolific Offenders scheme. The result was the Down Your Alley initiative, which saw Aspire install gates across rear-access alleyways in the Knutton area, contributing to a 40% drop in domestic burglaries.

"There are specific properties that lend themselves to burglary," explains Emma Pitcher, housing project coordinator at Aspire. "The Knutton area has many alleyways running between two houses to their back gardens – a magnet for burglars. They can use alleys like these as a cut-through to the back garden and street behind, and it becomes a maze of access for people up to no good." These alleys, however, lend themselves to gating, she says – although the association has had a couple where a private owner on one side refused permission to put a gate up.

Knutton was gated in February 2001 with £7000 funding from Aspire, £2000 from the Prolific Offenders project and £1700 of single regeneration budget cash, which paid for padlocks. Aspire has repeated the project in the Cross Heath area, and now plans to install 200 more gates in 2003/04 at a total cost of £25,000.

It has kept the costs down by having the gates made at HMP Featherstone in Wolverhampton. They came to about £100 per gate, which is near cost price.

The next batch will have an improved weather-resistant coating to cut down on maintenance, taking the price up to £120 per gate. "We got some similar gates from a local contractor for another project and paid a lot more for them," says Pitcher.

There are specific properties that lend themselves to burglary

Emma Pitcher, Aspire Housing

Getting hold of the materials for the project and storing them also takes some organising. "The logistics are a minefield. All of a sudden you've got to find somewhere to store 100 gates," says Pitcher. Luckily, Aspire was able to use a storage area off the laundry of one of its own blocks of flats.

Partnership working pays off
Pitcher believes that working jointly with the police, the probation service and the prison to plan and carry out the project has been key to its success. "We got a good deal on the gates, but it was also good for us to work with the prison. Some of the inmates making the gates actually came from the Knutton area." The padlocks, however, came from a local locksmith, funded this year by the Burglary Action Priority Group, part of a crime and disorder partnership in Newcastle.

The partnership with the probation service also helped when it came to fitting the gates. A supervised team of community service workers volunteered at weekends, fitting the gates at a rate of eight or 10 each two-day stint. "Residents were very happy with the team that fitted the gates," says Pitcher. "We had nothing but good feedback for the first project, and this time, out of 400 letters, I had one lady say she was worried – but after we explained how the team worked, she was happy." Pitcher says Aspire is also negotiating with the probation service for workers to undertake routine maintenance of the gates, such as painting.

Aspire invited residents to discuss the project with housing officers and took three different models of gate around estates so they could vote for their favourite. "It gave them some input and made them feel involved," says Pitcher. "We also arranged for a residents' association to go to the prison to see gates being manufactured."

Pitcher recommends having one person responsible for coordinating the whole project, giving tenants and partners a single point of contact.