Agenda item

Every local authority is now required to have a designated crime and disorder Overview and Scrutiny Committee with power to make recommendations regarding the functioning of their local Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (now called Community Safety Partnerships). This report provides information on the operation of the partnership in 2010/2011. 

Discussion:

The Chairman welcomed Chief Superintendent Corbishley, Area Commander and Chairman of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) and Councillor O’Brien as Vice-Chairman of the Partnership, Maurice O’Reilly from Kent Probation and Steve Griffiths from Kent Fire and Rescue Service to the meeting.

Chief Superintendent Corbishley explained that the merge between Medway Police with Swale and North Kent would go live on 16 November 2011 and set out the implications for Medway as part of that change.

He and Councillor O’Brien then did a joint presentation to the Committee on the achievements and challenges facing Medway from the perspective of the Community Safety Partnership and emphasised that as part of the ‘Big Society’ and localism agenda a whole systems approach was vital to tackle the various issues.

The presentation covered the following:

• The composition of the Community Safety Partnership
• The set up of the first Schools and Communities Together (SACT) group with Rainham Girls School and Howard School
• New projects underway – ‘Sow and Grow’ to encourage people to grow their own vegetables, fruit and plants and ‘Silver Surfer’ where pupils from Rainham Girls School were providing free computer training for older people
• A CSP fun day at the Strand
• Operation Safe Exit, Operation Elite and Operation Cubit
• Environmental Enforcement
• Community Team
• Trading Standards – Underage sales
• Kent Fire and Rescue Service activity
• Kent Probation Service activity
• End of year performance
• Current progress (April-May)
• Proposed CSP Structure
• Emerging issues group
• Current challenges including efficiency savings and in particular budget constraints
• Perception of crime being out of step with reality
• The need to engage wider partners to deal with issues
• The fact that it was being proposed that Councillor O’Brien would take over the Chairmanship of the Community Safety Partnership, although it was explained this was subject to ratification on Monday at a Partnership meeting

Maurice O’Reilly, Kent Probation, then spoke of the partnership working in relation to Kent Probation and offered to report back, later in the year, on work being undertaken with families to prevent future generations offending.

Steve Griffiths, Kent Fire and Rescue Service, spoke about the achievements of the Fire and Rescue Service including a 35% reduction in rubbish fires and stated that he was pleased with the road safety priority to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured in road traffic collisions in particular as this priority affects everyone in Medway and failure to tackle the issue cost a great deal of money and caused devastation to families.

The Committee made various comments and asked questions of the partners and officers present.  Their responses included details on the following:

• Work ongoing with young people causing anti-social behaviour in relation to motorbike usage
• Joint working between the Community Support Officers and Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs)
• The Chief Superintendent offered to report back on details of a possible backlog of Community Payback Scheme projects
• The sustainability of the SOS bus.  It was confirmed that both CVS Medway and Medway Council had recently contributed to its operating costs.  Members agreed with the Chief Superintendent that the bus had saved lives in Medway and was a valuable resource
• With regards to acquisitive crime it was confirmed that there did not seem to have been an increase in spite of the economic downturn.  The Police had, however, worked with retail outlet owners to lessen the likelihood of shoplifting
• The Chief Superintendent stated that he did not expect there to be any further mergers to take place in the near future but clarified that more collective procurement was taking place
• In respect of the night time economy, which the Committee felt to be an important priority, Councillor O’Brien referred to the intention to trial placement of temporary open urinals in Rochester for the months of July and August
• Some Members referred to what they felt were inadequate penalties issued by Magistrates in the case of fly tipping and the restrictions on tariffs set out by the Home Office
• The Chief Superintendent undertook to raise with the Community Safety Partnership the possibility of a citizen’s charter to encourage more pride in the area, suggested by the Assistant Director, Front Line Services
• The Assistant Director, Front Line Services outlined the actions being undertaken to improve the street scene but explained the limitations in some cases due to land ownership issues
• Members found the glossary at the end of the document very helpful
• Steve Griffiths, responding to a question, stated that in spite of low rainfall over the first few months of the year there had not been a massive impact on deliberate fires being lit.  He went on to discuss the PCSO training in schools to educate young people about the dangers and risks involved in starting a fire
• Councillor O’Brien confirmed that around 100 stray dogs are taken to a kennel per month in Medway and detailed ongoing work around getting dogs microchipped and the cost of dealing with stray dogs
• The Chief Superintendent undertook to discuss details of an incident relating to a person with mental health problems, who had been sectioned, with Councillor Etheridge outside of the meeting
• Discussion took place with regards to response times, which the Chief Superintendent said should improve later this year.  He told the Committee about a new scheme would operate where the public would be given a two hour response window for calls (where there was no risk to life) during which the Police would arrive.  He also explained that in relation to policing geographical boundaries no longer existed which meant that the nearest Police officers to an incident could investigate
• An open invitation was extended to all Members to attend a visit to the Operation Room for CCTV on 12 July 2011 from 5pm-7pm
• In response to a question about lessons learnt from the safe exit campaign the Chief Superintendent explained that it was hoped this campaign could be used in other situations in future to divert people from reoffending and encourage them back into employment and better health
• The need to improve the services in Medway to drug and alcohol abusers was highlighted
• With regards to perception of crime it was stated that efforts were being made in particular through PACTs and community engagement to reinforce the message that crime levels are low in Medway
• The Chief Superintendent agreed to report back to Members about an increase in powers for PCSOs later in the year

Decision:

The Committee agreed to:

(a)               thank Members of the Community Safety Partnership and officers supporting the Partnership for their presentation and responses to questions;

(b)               note the performance of the Community Safety Partnership and delivery of the 2010/2011 Community Safety Plan and recommended to Cabinet the 2011 version of the Community Safety Plan for consideration at its future meeting.