Risk management in Næstved

Næstved City Council has adopted a policy on risk management. Risk management is a necessary response in a world where there is a need to act proactively against threats of health, safety and public welfare.

The municipality works systematically with safety on the playgrounds in schools and kindergartens. Two trained playground inspectors check the safety and condition of public playgrounds regularly.

Risk management is about prevention and damage control. Not only regarding great natural phenomena like hurricanes and floods, but in particular the closer things in daily life, such as preventing harm to children when they play in the municipal playgrounds.

Risk management, however, is not only a municipal task. It must include the collaboration between the municipality and other public authorities, and what is more important, between citizens and businesses.

In the long run, risk management will not work, if the citizens do not change their behaviour and attitudes.

The municipality together with the police, the local homeowners' and housing associations, are discussing how to increase the security of citizens'homes and surroundings. A citizen can do very little to protect own property, but acting together, e.g. in neighborhood watch-programme, citizens can protect each other's assets.

Næstved also participates in the annual business fair in cooperation with the police where the dialogue with citizens and businesses about protecting property is ensured.

Another programme run by the municipality is distribution of smoke alarms for senior citizens and socially vulnerable citizens. Næstved works in the streets to remove graffiti from municipal and other public facilities. The aim is that Næstved must at all times appear as a clean and neat city. One graffiti will quickly turn into a lot of graffiti. The same reasoning applies regarding vandalism to road signs. All damaged ones will be replaced quickly.

Also, there is a set of regulations for safety and standards for sustainable construction and regulations for systematically setting up CCTVand fire alarm systems in the schools. In Næstved risk management is based on one office with its own budget.