Issue - meetings

The report of the scrutiny task group – sex trade in Cheltenham will be introduced by the chair of the task group, Councillor Barbara Driver. The O&S committee are asked to satisfy themselves that the terms of reference have been met and endorse the recommendations before forwarding them to Council on 22 February.

The chair of the scrutiny task group, Councillor Barbara Driver, introduced the report. She reminded members that the starting point for the review had been media coverage which had suggested that Cheltenham may have a significant problem regarding the illegal trade of sexual exploitation. Following a comprehensive review, the task group recognized that there was a problem but this was no more significant in Cheltenham than any other similar town. Unlike Gloucester, the sex trade in Cheltenham was mostly behind closed doors rather than being on the street. It was essential that the borough council worked in partnership with other agencies to address the issue of the illegal sex trade however small. During the review, the task group had heard from a young lady who had been trafficked and they understood how difficult it was for women to get out of their situation particularly as they may not even speak English. The police had suggested that the borough council may be able to help by ensuring there was a safe house in Cheltenham where they could take these vulnerable people whilst they were giving evidence to the police.

At the end of the review the task group felt able to reassure the public that it was not a big problem in Cheltenham, however everybody should be aware of the danger signs and the council should continue to work with the other agencies to ensure that young and vulnerable people are safe. She added the task group had not been concerned with prostitution; their concern was with people who had not chosen it as their career but had been forced into it. They hoped that by raising awareness of this issue, this would encourage people to feel confident about reporting any suspicions to the appropriate authority. She concluded by thanking all the members of the task group and Rosalind Reeves from Democratic Services and Sidgoree Nelson from the County Council who had supported the review.

The chair asked members to consider whether the task group had met their terms of reference.

A member said the report contained some really useful information but felt there needed to be more clarity on some of the recommendations. For example in order to consider the request for a safe house there needed to be more information on how many people it would need to accommodate and how often. There may be issues about the security of the people running the safe house as well as those residing in it and he questioned whether CBH was necessarily the best provider. He also had some problems with the timings of the report, as if this committee were to conclude that the report needed amendment or the task group needed to do further work, the report had already been published with the council agenda.

Another member felt it was a good report and set out what the council could do, however a multi agency approach was needed.  They were concerned by the potential number of agencies involved set  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9