Agenda and minutes

No declarations were received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Bagley.

The Executive Member for Customers and Communities and the Acting Community Safety Officer presented a report on:

·        Community Safety Partnership Action Plan 2014/15

·        Performance of the Partnership as recorded by Safer Derbyshire Research and Information Team

·        Changes to Anti Social Behaviour (ASB) legislation

·        Proposed Park Guardians Project

Community Safety Partnership Action Plan 2014/15

The Acting Community Safety Officer advised the committee of the Partnership’s progress towards the delivery of the current action plan. It was advised that going forward this was to be a two year plan, linked to funding from the Police and Crime Commissioner.

The Acting Community Safety Officer advised that the plan was likely to be amended to reflect new emerging crimes such as money laundering, slavery and child sexual exploitation.

Members asked about how Pubwatch Scheme information is shared between members of the scheme. The Acting Community Safety Officer advised that there is a website that provides details of individuals banned under the scheme that is accessible by the scheme members. There are also area meetings where common issues are discussed.

Members queried whether there was a link between the Pubwatch Scheme and the requirement for pubs to have a minimum number of doormen at busy times. The committee were advised that such requirements may be a condition of the licence granted by Chesterfield Borough Council. Doormen usually have a good knowledge of the individuals banned under the Pubwatch Scheme, so their presence acts as a deterrent against anti-social behaviour. 

Members discussed the success of the Partnership’s work with Chesterfield College in reducing the use of legal highs on campus.

Members queried whether the targets set under the action plan were being met. The Acting Community Safety Officer advised that most had been or were on schedule to be met, however the Partnership was still waiting to receive Accident and Emergency data on admissions relating to the use of legal highs.

Performance of the Partnership as recorded by Safer Derbyshire Research and Information Team

The Acting Community Safety Officer reported on the crime and incident data provided by the Safer Derbyshire Research and Information Team. This data compared the levels of crime and incidents of ASB between December 2013 and November 2014 with the same period over the previous 12 months.

It was reported that there had been overall reductions in the levels of crime and anti-social behaviour in the Chesterfield area. Some crimes had seen increases during this period, including drug offences, violence with injury and shoplifting. Members were concerned with these increases and asked detailed questions about the possible causes. Further information on the data on criminal damage and arson was requested and would be supplied to Members after the meeting.

The Acting Community Safety Officer advised that a scheme had been introduced by the Partnership that when a person was arrested for shoplifting, if it was shown that they did so from poverty and hunger, that person would be given a food voucher. To date, only one voucher had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

The Executive Member for Customers and Communities, as Chesterfield Scrutiny Member of the Derbyshire Police and Crime Panel advised the Committee on the recent developments and activities undertaken by that panel.  She reported that the panel had been successfully developing its scrutiny role.

Questions that had been raised to the Police and Crime Commissioner had included the commissioning of victim support services, issues around the 101 contact number, cyber-crime and domestic violence.

Promoting awareness of the non-emergency contact number (101) and Safer Neighbourhood Policing Teams were issues identified through the Commissioner’s “Have your Say” public consultation during 2013.

It was reported that plans were in place around general training awareness and speed of response when dealing with domestic violence.

There had been discussions over the willingness of Derbyshire police to collaborate with other regional forces. The Deputy Commissioner, however, had felt Derbyshire was on the forefront of regional collaboration and confirmed that Derbyshire police would look at the business case to consider any collaboration that would be of benefit to Derbyshire.

The Commissioner had changed his public engagement campaign from inviting the public to events, to going out to speak to the public in shopping centres, schools, workplaces etc, in order to reach smaller communities more effectively. The Commissioner was asked about what engagement had taken place with new and emerging community groups such as the Eastern European communities. The Commissioner had advised the Panel that there were new initiatives to try to forge closer links and ease any tensions.

It was also reported that issues of human trafficking and modern day slavery had been added to the Police and Crime Plan.

The Commissioner had developed a ‘Community Remedy Document’ for the local area after consultation with the public, local authorities and other agencies. The document was available on the Commissioner’s website. Members discussed if this was the same as restorative justice schemes. The Executive Member for Customers and Communities advised that this was similar but this new initiative had a wider scope.

There were also community grants from the Commissioner’s office for tackling anti-social behaviour in Chesterfield, ‘Our Vision Our Future’ and Hope Springs Recovery Centre had received grants.

The Executive Member for Customers and Communities also advised that the Police and Crime Panel had produced a report on the issues surrounding alcohol-related crime and alcohol treatment pathways. This would be circulated to Members after the meeting.

RESOLVED –

That the update be noted.

The aspects of the Scrutiny recommendations monitoring form that related to Crime and Disorder matters were considered by the Committee.

Implementation of Redeeming Our Communities Proposals

John Bown, a founding co-ordinator of Street Pastors and Redeeming Our Communities (ROC) Initiatives, presented a report to the Committee on the work of Street Pastors and ROC Initiatives.

Redeeming Our Communities is a Christian organisation that works with people of all faiths and no faith, aiming to bring about community transformation. Various initiatives with ROC had been set up following the successful relationships built by the Street Pastors project with Christians Together for Chesterfield.

Street Pastors had been set up by Christians Together for Chesterfield and the Ascension Trust, initially in partnership with Community Safety Partnership, in 2011. The Street Pastors patrol the late night entertainment area of Chesterfield on Saturday night. Members asked if their role was affected by a reduction in policing levels. Mr Bown advised that the role was different to that of the police, regardless of the numbers; the Street Pastors service was filling a gap not met by any other agency.

Street Pastors also patrol on Friday evenings and had set up a cafe as an ROC initiative, with a view to helping vulnerable young people who use ‘legal highs’.

Chesterfield School Pastors had also been created, with regular activities taking place at Parkside School. Members asked whether there were any plans to introduce this scheme to other schools. It was reported that schools needed to show an active interest in the scheme and a project was being developed at a school in Bolsover.

Another ROC initiative was a six week summer holiday. The scheme had run for the last three years, with a large number of children attending over each session. The scheme was designed to engage young people in positive activities such as sports to attract away from anti-social behaviour. Members asked whether there were plans to run the scheme in more than one deprived area of the Borough. It was discussed that there previously was a scheme with a bus taking out activities and equipment around the Borough, but attendances were variable.

It was discussed that the work of the Street Pastors and the ROC initiatives had seen a reduction in anti-social behaviour and violent crime and seen some positive behaviour changes in young people. Members were pleased with the success of the initiatives and hoped they would be expanded.

Members thanked Mr Bown for attending to present the report and answering the Committee’s questions.

          Information on alcohol related hospital admissions

The Acting Community Safety Officer advised the Committee that data had been received from Chesterfield Royal Hospital Emergency Department Data from August to September 2014 for admissions related to alcohol health problems. The report was discussed in private session (see Minute 39 below).

The Committee was pleased to see that this information was being recorded and shared, and requested that the data be regularly reported to the Committee.

Letter  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

To move “That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act" – information in relation to financial or business affairs.

The Acting Community Safety Officer presented a report providing data from Chesterfield Royal Hospital Emergency Department from August to September 2014 for admissions related to alcohol health problems. The provision of the report was referred to at Minute 37 above.

RESOLVED –

(1)            That the report be noted.

(2)            That the Acting Community Safety Officer be requested to provide a regular report to the Committee on alcohol related hospital admissions and that the recommendations on the sharing of this information be removed from the monitoring schedule.