Agenda item

Cheltenham Community Safety Partnership (Chair of Partnership, Partnership Officer and Community Protection Manager)

 

Gloucestershire Police Authority (Police Authority Representative)

 

County Safer Communities O&S Committee (Councillor Helena McCloskey)

Rosi Shepherd, the Chair of the Cheltenham Community Safety Partnership (CCSP), along with Helen Down the Partnerships Officer and Trevor Gladding the Community Protection Manager introduced themselves to the committee. 

 

The Partnerships Officer explained that CCSP was statutory, each of the six districts had one and all fed into the county partnership.  The CCSP sat under the Cheltenham Strategic Partnership and consisted of 7 statutory partners.

 

The aim of the CCSP was to reduce crime, anti-social behaviour (ASB) and fear of crime. 

 

The priorities of the CCSP were set annually in an action plan and worked was delivered through action groups on ongoing issues (substance misuse, domestic abuse, hate crime, ASB) and a range of partners were involved in each. 

 

The CCSP also had to be responsive to crime trends.  Crime in Cheltenham was down by 8% on last year, the partnership had set a target reduction of 17.5% by April 2008, which was achieved eventually and had continued to fall since then.

 

For some time the partnership had focussed activities on reducing crimes linked to the night time economy, mainly assaults.  This included initiatives such as the taxi marshals, Best Bar None and street pastors which was launched at the end of 2009.  The result was a 31% reduction in assaults by the end of 2009-2010 and alcohol related crime was down by 16% this Christmas compared to last and was lower in Cheltenham than Stroud.

 

Last year domestic and shed/garage burglaries linked to cycle thefts was the main problem in Cheltenham and the partnership supported various strands of work to stop domestic burglary.  This remained a priority for the partnership and the Police had asked for help in organising a conference.

 

In terms of challenges ahead, the uncertainty about future funding was the main issue.  Since the paper had been circulated it had been announced that the County Council would receive £580k of un-ring fenced money for community safety from the Home Office.  It was hoped that some of this would be passed on to the district councils but emphasis was given to the fact that this was not ring fenced to community safety. 

 

Despite this, the partners had agreed a series of actions for 2011-12, which included the implementation of the Cardiff A&E model for violence prevention in Cheltenham. 

 

The Chair of the CCSP highlighted that the key to addressing domestic burglaries was ensuring good communication with residents on how to manage risk to their homes. 

 

The Community Protection Manager offered the perspective of his area of work.  CBC had benefited from a good relationship with the Police since the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act.

 

Cheltenham was the first district to have a full time Police Officer sited in the CBC Anti-Social Behaviour Team, he was confident that this would expand in the future given that the Superintendent of Cheltenham accepted the need to work in Partnership.

 

The days of working in silos were long gone, but this had not happened over night and measures put in place almost five years ago were just starting to show results.  He didn’t wish to list all of the projects but was confident that the work undertaken had made Cheltenham safer for residents and visitors, in which businesses had played their part too. 

 

The Chairman thanked all three representatives for their attendance and update which had been most useful. 

 

The following responses were given by the three representatives to questions from members of the committee;

 

• The partnership would balance communication of the domestic burglary issues in Cheltenham with positive stories, a good example of which was the advent calendar at Christmas, which coupled advice with various vouchers.  This would prevent the fear of crime amongst residents rising.  In this instance the Police had asked the partnership to take a lead given the successes of the past.
• The Council had given consent for the Town Centre dispersal order despite concerns about the size of the area and a blanket approach.  Thankfully the Police approached it in a way that meant that it was never used whilst addressing the issues that had necessitated the application. 
• The partnership priorities would take account of the youth provision gap and the issues arising from it. 
• The Licensing Act of 2003 was being revised and Officers were actively investigating the opportunity of charging a levy.  The levy would apply to premises wishing to stay open after 12 midnight and could range from £400 to £6k per annum dependent on capacity of the premises.  The levy would be split 30/70, 30% going to the Council for administration of the charge and the remaining 70% to the Police.
• Since the paper was circulated £500k had been allocated to the newly formed Safer Stronger Justice Committee and as such the recommendation would need to be amended to reflect the request that funding is provided to each of the districts.
• The partnership received strong support from CBC and the role of chair of the CCSP was maintaining engagement of all partners and retaining voluntary and community sector involvement given their vast knowledge of service delivery with minimal resources.
• The investigations into the levy were at initial stages but the hope was that some agreement could be reached with the Police about the split (30/70) in order that the monies addressed all results of the night time economy, including cleansing issues.  It would be surprising if other local authorities didn’t pursue the night time levy.  A briefing note would be produced to keep members informed.

 

The Chairman thanked the three representatives for their attendance and update and proposed that he write to the Gloucestershire Safer, Stronger Justice Commission to advocate the use of the un-ring fenced funds from the Home Office to support local community safety projects, including anti-social behaviour.  Members of the committee were happy with this proposal and as such a letter would be drafted and sent in due course.

 

The Chairman introduced the two representatives of the Police Authority, Andy Champness the Chief Executive and Dr. Melanie Gibbs the Deputy Chair. 

 

The Deputy Chair of authority passed on the apologies of the Chairman, Councillor Rob Garnham who sadly was unable to attend the meeting.

 

She explained that she hadn’t prepared a paper or presentation, which was probably for the best as it may have repeated most of what had been presented by the CCSP representatives. 

 

There were 17 members on the Police Authority, most of whom, of which she was one, were independent members. 

 

In April 2011 the authority would move from the current 17 Inspector Neighbourhood Areas within 3 Divisions (Cheltenham/Tewkesbury, Gloucester/Forest of Dean and Stroud/Cotswolds) and move to a new model. 

 

There would be 6 Local Policing Areas (formerly Divisions) one for each district and Cheltenham LPA would have 2 Inspector Neighbourhood Areas, North and South, where it used to have 4.

 

Ahead of detailed cuts but in anticipation of them the Authority had looked to do things more effectively and efficiently, working to identify where savings could be derived whilst maintaining frontline policing and increasing a visible policing presence wherever possible.

 

The new model offered a more flexible structure which would allow visible policing to be maintained whilst achieving savings of 20% over the next 4 years.  The restructure necessitated changes to the management of estates which would in turn allow for investment in people rather than buildings, therefore, the estates strategy had been revisited with a view to disposing of some police stations. 

 

The Chairman thanked the Deputy Chair of Gloucestershire Police Authority and invited questions and comments from members.

 

The following responses were given by the Deputy Chair and Chief Executive of the GPA to questions from members of the committee;

 

• The Police Authority were holding public meetings to allow the public the opportunity to give their views and opinions.  No decisions about the closures of police stations were final.  
• Inspectors were confident that the restructure would not affect how an area was policed and nor would the closure of some police accommodation given that some of it was rarely open e.g. St. Marks had not been used for local policing for some time.  Residents in Whaddon had expressed their desire to retain a building presence and alternative options were currently being explored.
• Members were invited to attend the public meeting at Pittville School on the 22 March between 7pm and 9pm.  Alternatively, Councillors and the public could submit ideas and views via the website (www.gloucestershirepoliceauthority.co.uk).
• The main priority of the current consultation, which would close at the end of March, was to meet the 2011-2012 budget, but this would be an ongoing process and the Police Authority were open to talking to all organisations, including Children Centres, etc.  Long term the Police Authority were hoping to achieve a Cheltenham presence in shared accommodation with CBC and/or other organisations.
• The funding for Police Community Support Workers had been ring fenced for the next 2 years, however no promises could be made beyond that.
• CBC were in initial discussions with Tony Godwin (Superintendent, Cheltenham Local Policing Area) about housing Police Officers within the Municipal Offices. 
• The Police Authority always aimed to maintain a good relationship with the Press.

 

Finally, the Chairman introduced Councillor McCloskey, the CBC representative on the County Community Safety O&S Committee.

 

Councillor McCloskey explained that the committee was formed in November 2009 as a result of the revisions to the County Council scrutiny structure.  This was a statutory committee.

 

The committee comprised of 9 members of the county council, 1 councillor from each of the six district councils and a representative of the police authority.  The remit of the committee included crime & disorder, fire & rescue, trading standards, emergency management, coroners and registration of births & deaths. 

 

Work and recommendations of the tasks groups were monitored by the committee every 6, 12 and 18 months.

 

To date, work of the committee included;

 

Fire & Rescue – The committee had written to the House of Commons Communities and Local Government Committee outlining its concerns over the proposals to create a South West Regional Fire & Control Centre in Taunton.  This project had since been cancelled.

 

The committee had considered and supported the project to build and maintain 4 new fire stations. 

 

A comprehensive report was produced on the levels of sick absence in the Fire & Rescue Service and contained 18 recommendations which included;

1.      The need for better communication between the Occupational Health Service and Human Resources.

2.      Improvements to the recording of sick absence.

3.      Debriefing of control room staff after distressing telephone calls.

 

Emergency Planning – The committee reviewed the approach and impact of severe weather, this included the consideration of how the county council communicated with the public during emergencies. 

 

Members received a presentation of the current business continuity arrangements which detailed the requirement of Service Managers to sustain critical elements of their service without reliance on ICT, Property Services or Human Resources for up to 5 days.

 

The floods in 2007 were a severe test of the arrangements as Shire Hall was closed for a week.  ICT was recovered within 2 days, the call centre relocated to Wiltshire and the County Emergency Centre relocated to Waterwells.  In the main, services worked well, though not all plans proved viable and some staff from non-critical areas were not used as effectively as they could have been.

 

Crime & Disorder – A task group was established in March 2010 to better understand the Community Safety Partnerships and in September 2010 it compiled a report.  The main recommendation was that the joint working arrangements of the Gloucestershire Safer and Stronger Communities Partnership and the Gloucestershire Criminal Justice Board be formalised.  As a direct result of the recommendation, the Gloucestershire Safer, Stronger and Justice Commission was set up and held its first meeting in January 2011.

 

The committee recently responded to the Government consultation relating to the proposal to replace police authorities with elected Police and Crime Commissioners.  A particular concern was where scrutiny of the commissioner would reside given that the white paper was lacking on this point.

 

The committee had considered where it could add value in light of the current financial situation and had already identified;

 

Fire & Rescue – following the cancellation of the regional control centres the committee would respond to the Governments consultation ‘the future of the Fire & Rescue control services in England’. 

 

In anticipation of the move to Taunton, repairs and maintenance to the local control centre had been minimal over recent years and in light of the cancellation of that project, urgent investment was required.

 

Emergency Planning – The committee was concerned that a 25% reduction to Business Continuity resources would compromise emergency plans.  An exercise was undertaken on the 1 February to test the effectiveness of the arrangements, which was currently being evaluated.  A report would be taken to the committee in March where it would decide upon any further action.

 

Crime & Disorder – The committee were concerned about the proposals for an elected Police and Crime Commissioner, particularly, who would be responsible for scrutinising the commissioner.  The committee had expressed an interest in taking role if this was appropriate. 

 

Registration – In view of the need to make financial savings, major changes to the registration service were planned.  Financial planning proved difficult as budgets were set annually and carry forward of under or over spend was disallowed and by its very nature, the work and income fluctuated from year to year.  The service was currently 75% self financing and the aim was that it would become fully self financing over the next 3 years, plans for which included centralising administrative functions into the Cheltenham office, moving local registry services into shared buildings as at Cirencester Library and all historic registers to be held in the Archives building in Gloucester.   The committee would receive a progress update at their October 2011 meeting.

 

Trading Standards – the committee was concerned about the proposed cut to funding of 50% over the next 2 years, by creating a multi-disciplinary team focussing on response rather than prevention.  A request had been submitted to the O&S Management Committee to set up a task group to evaluate outcomes.

 

The Chairman thanked Councillor McCloskey for the update she had provided and commended the good work of the committee. 

 

In response to a question from a member of the committee, Councillor McCloskey confirmed that the demolition of the fire station on Keysham Road was due to start soon if it hadn’t already and the service would temporarily occupy an empty warehouse on Kingsditch Industrial Estate until the new station had been completed.

 

The Chairman thanked all attendees for the staying and providing such comprehensive updates to the committee, it was appreciated.