Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Wanda King and Pattie Hill.  Councillor Mark Shurmer attended as a substitute for Councillor King.

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and / or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests, and any Party Whip.

There were no declarations of interest nor of any party whip.

RESOLVED that

the minutes of the meeting of the Crime and Disorder Scrutiny Panel held on Wednesday 26^th September 2018 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The Community Safety Manager presented an update on the work of the North Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership in Redditch from September 2018 to August 2019. 

During the presentation of the report the following points were highlighted for Members’ consideration:

·                The partnership worked to resolve community safety issues in Redditch Borough, Bromsgrove District and Wyre Forest District.

·                There were a number of sub-groups of the partnership which addressed specific community safety themes.

·                The Safer Redditch Group was in the process of being reviewed as there had been some capacity issues in terms of providing support to the group following the departure of an experienced member of staff.

·                There was an Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) and Complex Cases Group which provided problem solving solutions to many community safety issues.  Many of the issues addressed by this group involved neighbour disputes.

·                There was also a Multi-Agency Targeted Enforcement (MATE) group which was being piloted in Redditch and was addressing many of the issues that would previously have been handled by the Safer Redditch Group.

·                The strategic assessment outlining key issues for the three districts had been presented in draft form at the latest meeting of the partnership board.  Once the document had been signed off the partnership would enter a planning stage.

·                The West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) was not a member of the partnership.  However, there was a statutory duty for the partnership to work closely with the PCC and for there to be a cross reference between the partnership’s and the PCC’s plans.

·                The PCC’s terms of office were due to come to an end shortly and all of the PCC’s grant funding had now been spent.  The partnership, which had received some of this funding, needed to ensure that all funds, which were paid in arrears, were spent.

·                There was a new public health duty to prevent and tackle serious violence.  This had been subject to Government consultation. 

Following the presentation of the report Members discussed a number of points in detail:

·                The focus of the partnership and the extent to which it delivered projects in the community.  Members were advised that the partnership was not just strategic and got involved in matters such as resolving specific ASB cases.

·                The review of the Safer Redditch Group and the timescales for completing this review.  Members were advised that there were no timescales for this, however, if the MATE was retained then the ASB and Complex Cases Group would also be retained and it was unlikely that the Safer Redditch Group would then be required.

·                The potential for the officer who had left the organisation to be replaced.  Members were advised that a new Officer would be recruited using grant funding.

·                The PCC’s funding of a CCTV upgrade and how this scheme was progressing.  Members were advised that the partnership was confident that this scheme would be delivered as scheduled.

·                The Government consultation in respect of the new legal duty to support a multi-agency approach to preventing and tackling serious violence  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Community Safety Manager presented an update on the work of the North Worcestershire Community Safety Partnership since the previous meeting of the Panel to address ASB in the Borough.  This report had been provided at the request of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

In presenting the report the Community Safety Manager highlighted a number of points for Members’ consideration:

·                The data provided in the report compared ASB incidents reported to the police in 2017/18 to those incidents that had been reported in 2018/19.

·                ASB was not a crime and therefore was recorded on the police database as an incident rather than a crime.

·                The data only reflected incidents that were reported by the public or organisations to the police.  There would potentially be cases of ASB that were not reported.

·                An analysis of the data revealed that there had been a reduction in most types of ASB incident reported to the police.

·                The exceptions to this reduction were neighbour disputes and fights and arguments where there had been a slight increase.

·                An analysis by season revealed that reported ASB incidents were higher in the summer months than in the winter months.  However, there was a downward trend in the rates of reporting over recent years.

·                The ASB data per ward for 2017/18 compared to 2018/19 had been provided for comparative purposes.  This revealed that ASB incidents were higher in Abbey and Greenlands wards, which contained the town centre and the hospital respectively.

·                There had been a significant decrease in the number of ASB incidents reported in some wards, including Batchley and Brockhill, Matchborough and Winyates.

·                ASB levels in the Borough compared well to Wyre Forest District but were higher than in Bromsgrove District.  However, the reductions in ASB over the last 12 months were slightly higher in Redditch than in the other two districts.

·                The Community Safety team had provided two days of training recently in respect of ASB and environmental crime.  This training had been well received and a housing association had requested further training on the subject.

·                The Council had drafted one community protection order since new powers were introduced in 2014.  This had not been used as the Council’s Legal Department had advised that Officers should serve notice in that instance.  However, the draft order could be used as a future template if needed.

·                More data in respect of ASB at a ward and neighbourhood level could be accessed by Members on the police website.

Following the presentation of the report Members discussed the reasons for the decrease in reports of ASB incidents over the years, including when comparing the summer season in 2018/19 to the previous year.  Officers explained that there would be no single reason though specific incidents, such as a football World Cup, in one year could lead to a spike in incidents being reported. 

At the end of the discussions in respect of this matter the Chair noted that there tended to be one meeting of the Crime and Disorder  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.