Agenda item

To receive a presentation from the Portfolio Holder for Community Safety and Regulatory Services, Councillor Juliet Brunner, based on the questions proposed by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee. 

(Report attached)

Apologies were tendered on behalf of Councillor Brunner due to illness.  Members expressed disappointment that the Portfolio Holder would be unable to deliver her Annual Report during the current municipal year. It was suggested that in future the Committee should not arrange to receive a Portfolio Holder’s Annual Report for the final meeting of any municipal year. This would ensure that an annual report could be re-scheduled in the event of a Portfolio Holder being forced to submit his/her apologies.

The Committee instead received the annual report from relevant Officers.  Firstly, a brief presentation was delivered that showcased the work of the Redditch Community Safety Partnership during 2010/11.  In particular, this presentation depicted: the work of Redditch Roadway Arts, including pictures of the artwork that had been displayed on local bus shelters and pedestrian subways; the work of the partnership on the secure access system at Winyates district centre as part of the area of highest needs project; the Redditch Home Security guide; and the accreditation recently achieved by the CCTV service.  

Members were also provided with responses to the Committee’s list of questions as detailed below:

1)           What is being done to address drugs misuse and its implications for community safety in Redditch?

A recent report from the Worcestershire DAAT (Drug and Alcohol Action Team) stated that individuals from Redditch were more likely to leave adult drug treatment either drug free or having cut down their drug usage compared to other districts in Worcestershire.  Available data also indicated that there had been a fall in drugs offences during the year.

The Worcestershire DAAT had recently re-commissioned all of its drugs and alcohol services for the county in an attempt to further reduce drug and alcohol abuse.  New integrated alcohol and drug treatment programmes were to be delivered in Redditch under a “Pathways to Recovery” service from 1st April 2011.  This service was to combine a range of alcohol and drug services and would provide a holistic approach to substance misuse with a strong focus on abstinence and recovery.  The Employment, Training, Education, and Volunteering Service would help individuals overcome any barriers to work and employment following their treatment from drugs misuse.

Members were advised that a misleading report on the subject of a recent short-term police exercise, Operation Vellum, had appeared in the local press.  This operation was in fact designed to target a small number of individuals involved in alcohol related anti-social behaviour in the Church Green area and did not indicate an increase in drugs misuse in Redditch.

2)           How is the Council working with the Police to mitigate the affects of police budget cuts and an expected reduction in police force numbers on community safety?

Detailed information had yet to be received on how the police budget cuts would impact on police force numbers. The Council was working hard to ensure that the affect of reduced resources for partner agencies on community safety was minimised. Indeed, many Council services were already working closely with the police around a number of crime prevention and community safety projects.

Members were referred to a number of projects being undertaken by the Redditch Community Safety Team to help reduce crime and disorder. This included the Redditch Roadway Arts programme of renovating and repainting bus shelters and underpasses. Measures like this helped the Police to focus resources on areas of greatest need. Also, the Environmental Services team was working with the Police to reduce the possibility of criminal activity by cutting back on vegetation to improve visibility in public areas.

Members were supportive of the strong working relationship that had developed between the Police and the Council to reduce crime and disorder. In particular, the Committee welcomed the lack of graffiti that existed in Redditch compared to other areas.

3)           How is Redditch’s CCTV system to be protected from funding cuts? What are your plans for CCTV in Redditch going forward?

Members were informed that Redditch’s CCTV system had been allocated mainstream funding within the Council’s Medium Term Financial Plan.  Redditch Borough Council and Bromsgrove District Council had already accrued savings through sharing services for CCTV. The Councils were also exploring further areas where savings could be made. This included undertaking a review of the current CCTV maintenance contract.

The draft ‘Protection of Freedoms Bill, which aimed to ensure that CCTV was being used effectively and appropriately, was currently out for public consultation. The Council would develop a list of actions to ensure it was compliant with the Bill following its publication. 

4)           Do you have plans to review the licences of alcohol retail outlets in the centre? If so, to what extent?

An alcohol licence could be brought under review if evidence was forthcoming that any of the terms of the license had been breached. A review could be requested by any responsible statutory authority; an interested party; or a councillor. It would be at the discretion of the Licensing Sub-Committee to make a final decision.

Officers were constantly liaising with the Police and other responsible authorities to identify potentially problematic premises. Preventative action, including holding discussions with the relevant licence holder and premises supervisor, would take place as and when necessary. However, Members heard that very few premises in Redditch had had their licence reviewed.

Members were further informed that the Police could strongly recommend that a premise alter its closing hours if there had been a number of alcohol related disturbances in the local area. Attempts were also being made to reduce the number of intoxicated people in a given premise to prevent disturbances from occurring in the neighbouring area.

Members praised the work of Officers and the Police in keeping Redditch safe from alcohol induced crime and disorder and suggested that this should be further communicated to help boost the night-time economy.

5)           What challenges do you foresee in your service area in the future?

Officers provided a summary of current and future challenges that needed to be met under each main service area:

A business strategy for the Lifeline service was to be developed to ensure that that service was self-sustaining. This would involve a robust marketing plan to help attract new customers and generate extra income. The new service would also benefit from advances in available technology.

The funding for Supporting People was currently under review at the county level. The decision had also been made to undertake a tendering process for the Call Alarm services.  Redditch Borough Council had decided to tender for the business of incorporating Telecare into support packages at the initial stage. As part of this process the option of working in conjunction with Worcestershire Telecare to potentially provide a county-wide service was to be explored.

A policy and vision was to be developed for offering the lone worker monitoring service to outside organisations.  The service worked well for existing staff and had the potential to become a revenue generating service.

Proposed legislative changes regarding the powers used to deal with anti-social behaviour were currently open for consultation. It was expected that any new powers to deal with anti-social behaviour would be introduced in spring 2012. In the meantime, the Council would continue to help enforce existing national policies.

The Council was identifying how other partners’ budget and resource reductions would impact on community safety. Work would need to be carried out in partnership with relevant partner bodies to establish links with the new Police and Crime Commissioner to help attract increased future funding. The Redditch Community Safety Partnership had recently received an increased budget for 2011/12 as funds had been allocated in accordance with need rather than the size of the local population.

6)     To what extent does the night-time economy in Redditch impact on levels of crime and disorder? What is being proposed to address this?

It was agreed that this answer had already been provided under a previous question.

The Chair thanked Officers on behalf of the Committee for delivering the Portfolio Holder’s Annual Report.

RESOLVED that:

1)      the Committee would not arrange to receive any Portfolio Holder Annual Report for at the final meeting of each municipal year in future; and

2)      the Portfolio Holder’s Annual Report be noted.