Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were received.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Jeannie Barr and Miles.

For Minute Nos. 34, 35 and 36 the Committee sat as the Council’s designated Crime and Disorder Committee, in accordance with Section 19 of the Police and Justice Act 2006.

Minutes of Meeting of Derbyshire Police and Crime Panel held on 28 January, 2016.

5.05 pm

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, as Chesterfield Scrutiny Member of the Derbyshire Police and Crime Panel (PCP) was unable to attend the meeting but submitted the minutes of the meeting of the PCP held on 28 January, 2016 for the information of the Committee.

Members requested that the minutes of the most recent PCP meeting be included on future agendas of this Council’s Crime and Disorder Committee.

The Committee questioned whether substitute Members were allowed to attend the PCP, and the Chair agreed to discuss this with the Cabinet Member.

RESOLVED –

(1)         That the minutes of the most recent Derbyshire Police and Crime Panel meeting be included on future agendas of this Council’s Crime and Disorder Committee.

(2)         That the Chair discuss whether substitute Members were allowed to attend the Derbyshire Police and Crime Panel with the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing.

5.20 pm

The Community Safety Officer presented a report on the progress of the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) towards the delivery of the current Community Safety Action Plan refresh (2016/17), and to inform Members of the current crime trends.

A listing of community safety actions for 2016/17 which had been developed at the CSP multi-agency planning meeting in January, 2016 was attached to the report as Attachment A. The top five priority areas for the CSP had been identified as Anti-social Behaviour, Domestic Violence, Abuse and Sexual Violence, Safeguarding Adults, Safeguarding Children and Substance Misuse.

In addition community safety activity would continue as usual in the areas of Acquisitive Crime, Cyber Crime, Organised Immigration Crime, Human Trafficking and Exploitation (OICHTE), Organised Crime and Terrorism.

Objectives had been identified for each of the priority areas and a funding bid for £25,000 from the Police and Crime Commissioner to support the delivery of the action plan had been successful.

The CSP Plan (2016/17) was currently in draft form and would be published on the CSP website along with the Action Plan document once these had been formally approved. Copies would be circulated to Members of the Crime and Disorder Committee at that stage.

The CSP’s performance to December 2015 as recorded by the Safer Derbyshire Research and Information Unit was attached to the report as Attachment B, and the performance to February 2016 was circulated at the meeting.

The data showed that reported crime in Chesterfield had reduced by 1% in the 12 months to February, 2016 compared with the previous 12 months. The largest reductions had been in respect of Shoplifting, Other Theft Offences and Theft from a Vehicle, whilst the largest increases had been in Violence with Injury, Non-Domestic Burglary and Violence without Injury. There had been a 3.2% reduction in calls for service relating to Anti-Social Behaviour compared to the previous 12 months. It was noted that the CSP had received its first ‘community trigger’ request in respect of anti-social behaviour and that this had been satisfactorily resolved.

It was confirmed that work was ongoing to identify the reasons for the increase in violent crimes to enable a targeted response to be developed.

It was noted that there had been a 7.3% reduction in drug offences, and it was explained that various actions had been taken to address these issues, including repossessing or closing properties used for the supply of drugs, protecting vulnerable people recruited by suppliers, temporarily closing the sensory gardens near the Town Hall and working with the Homelessness Service on the ‘No 2^nd Night Out’ initiative. 

The Community Safety Officer reported that it was hoped that an additional part-time staffing resource would be approved for the CSP in April, 2016.

In response to a question from Members, she was not sure how the CSP would be impacted by the current devolution proposals.

RESOLVED –

(1)         That the report be noted.

(2)         That the Community Safety Partnership Plan (2016/17) and Action Plan document be circulated to Members of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

5.55 pm

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

In respect of the Committee’s recommendation that a review be carried out of the decision to stop locking the park gates at night it was noted that the Community Safety Partnership had recommended that the gates at Queen’s Park and at Eastwood Park, Hasland be locked at night as these were the parks where there was most potential for damage and where problems had been experienced last year.

It was confirmed that the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing had been requested to take the views of the Committee expressed at the 24 November, 2015 meeting into account when producing final recommendations for decision on the future arrangements for the locking of park gates, but that a final decision had not yet been taken on this. 

RESOLVED –

That the Scrutiny monitoring report be noted.

For the remaining items the Committee sat as the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee.

5.50 pm

The Committee considered the Forward Plan for the period 1 April – 31 July 2016.

RESOLVED –

That the Forward Plan be noted.

6.20 pm

The Committee noted the list of items included on its current Work Programme.

The Policy and Scrutiny Officer explained that the Scrutiny Work Programming Action Day held on 8 March, 2016 involving Scrutiny Members, Cabinet Members, backbench Members and officers had identified a long-list of issues for potential scrutiny involvement. This long-list would be considered further at the next stage of the Scrutiny Work Programming Action Day to be held on 19 April involving Scrutiny and backbench Members. It was hoped that this would produce proposals for the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum to agree a Scrutiny Work Programme for 2016/17, which it was anticipated would replace the existing programme. 

In response to a question from Members it was confirmed that there was currently a Scrutiny Committee for the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority, including a Scrutiny Member from Chesterfield Borough Council. The Centre for Public Scrutiny was working on the development of scrutiny arrangements in combined authorities, and it was hoped that such arrangements would be developed that reflected the local Scrutiny Committee role to avoid any duplication of work.

RESOLVED –

That the report be noted.

6.00 pm

The Cabinet Member for Town Centre and Visitor Economy and the Town Centre Operations Manager presented a progress report on the feasibility study on Chesterfield’s outdoor market, further to the progress report provided to the meeting of the Committee on 15 September, 2015.

The purpose of the study had been to analyse the existing operation of the market and to present a number of possible development options, with costs, to make the market a more attractive location for both traders and shoppers and to help to provide it with a sustainable future.

Following the September meeting of the Committee options in each of the three intervention levels (high, medium and low) had been further developed and budget costs calculated, ranging from £900,000 to £3 million, depending on the level of intervention, adopted design and materials used.

However, within the General Fund Capital Strategy and Programme, which had been approved by Council on 25 February, 2016, it had been identified that based on current forecasts there would be no surplus resources available to fund new schemes, including the market reconfiguration project, until 2017/18.

In addition there was a risk that any further significant capital expenditure in an area that included VAT exempt activities, including market rents, could cause the Council’s prescribed VAT limit to be breached, resulting in the Council being unable to reclaim any of the exempt VAT. Until the VAT recovery implications were fully explored the reconfiguration project could not proceed.

It was confirmed that the Council remained fully committed to the reconfiguration project in order to increase occupancy levels on the outdoor market and had only deferred the decision to allow time to identify possible sources of external funding to carry out the proposed improvements in the medium to long term.

In the short term, the Markets Team was working together with traders and other town centre stakeholders to agree and implement a programme of lower level improvements with the objective of enhancing trading conditions, tackling the decline in footfall and reducing operating costs. Following discussion at the Markets Consultative Committee the previous day, it was proposed to set up a Steering Group to progress such improvements.

Arising from questions and comments from Members the following issues were raised:

·        Access for prams and mobility scooters could be improved by widening walkways and providing breaks in rows;

·        Some rows of stalls would need to be temporarily removed for the Women’s Cycle Tour of Britain event in June 2016;

·        The aim to bring stalls currently on surrounding streets back in to the Market Place;

·        The monthly Artisan Market was proving popular in providing a different kind of market and other specialist markets could be explored, such as a Youth Market, although the previous Continental Market had not proved to be sustainable;

·        The importance of attracting a wider balance of traders, such as fresh food. The ‘Love Your Local Market’ fortnight in May would seek to encourage new traders;

·        Consideration could be given to arranging themed areas within the market, such  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

6.30 pm

The Minutes of the meeting of the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee held on 24 November, 2015 were presented.

RESOLVED –

That the Minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.