Chesterfield Community Safety Partnership Progress Report attached.
5.30 - 5.40 pm – Cabinet Member / Officer’s introduction
5.40 - 6.20 pm – Questions and discussion
Minutes:
The positive contribution of the CSP in working with partners to address the key risk and threat themes within the action plan was highlighted, despite the additional challenges arising from the Covid pandemic and related restrictions.
The report referred to the following areas of activity within the action plan:
· Supporting Rural Action Derbyshire’s Digital Hubs project, which had trained volunteers to be ‘Cyber Buddies’ and promoting online safety through the Digital MOT and scams podcast developed by the Safeguarding Adults Board;
· Supporting the PREVENT counter terrorism and radicalisation programme, including input planned to secondary schools;
· An increasing number of ‘guard cams’ cameras to combat anti-social behaviour (ASB), acquisitive crime and the threat / fear of crime, used to support vulnerable people and the Police in information and intelligence gathering;
· A multi-agency ASB communications campaign planned for the easing of Covid restrictions and the summer holidays and the continuation of the Town Centre Public Space Protection Order;
· Supporting the development of the county-wide Hate Crime Strategy and Action Plan and promoting Hate Crime Awareness Week in October 2021;
· Exploring funding opportunities to increase the provision of CCTV (such as in Staveley town centre) and supporting the Derbyshire Business Crime Reduction Partnership in enabling local businesses to reduce acquisitive crime and ASB.
The CSP had been chosen to lead a pilot, Operation Blofeld, based on close partnership working and intelligence gathering to protect communities from the threats and risks of serious and organised crime.
It was noted that the crime data statistics (attached as Appendix 2 to the report) showed a reduction of 6.2% in the total number of crimes reported in Chesterfield from February, 2020 to January, 2021 compared to the previous 12 months. There had been significant increases in the number of recorded incidents of violence without injury (including common assault, domestic violence, stalking and harassment) and of public disorder (including breaches of Covid regulations). Further information had been requested on the increase in the number of reported incidents of hate crime.
Arising from Members’ questions and discussion the following points were raised:
· The Community Safety Team worked closely with the Police in seeking to address ASB in parks and public spaces, including regular walk throughs with PCSOs (which local Members were welcome to join) with the aim to educate and encourage compliance prior to enforcement, regular meetings with the Police to target interventions at identified hotspots and engagement of PCSOs with children in schools. Covid related breaches, as reported in the crime figures above, were where the Police would directly engage given their enforcement powers.
· Encouraging more people to use outdoor spaces, such as through the Great Outdoors programme from April, 2021, was an approach the CSP was working in partnership on with a view to those spaces becoming less attractive for ASB.
· The current difficulty of delivering outdoor activities, such as Rother Active Youth, in a Covid-secure way had resulted in activities being required to be delivered differently, such as online, which did not always capture some of the more hard to reach children.
· The use of guard cams was based on an assessment of the risk and threat to the individual in each case.
· The importance of close partnership working at local community level to combat issues such as drug taking, including in Rother ward and Staveley town centre. It was hoped that Operation Blofeld would have a positive impact on such issues.
It was noted that the latest Covid infection rates were lower in Chesterfield than for Derbyshire, the East Midlands or England, but that the take up of vaccinations was lower in Rother and Middlecroft and Poolsbrook wards than in the rest of the borough. Details of a community question and answer webinar to be run by Joined Up Care Derbyshire the following week would be distributed to Members after the meeting to promote greater take up of vaccinations.
The Chair thanked the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, the Assistant Cabinet Member and the Service Director – Leisure, Culture and Community Wellbeing for their contributions to the meeting.
RESOLVED –
(1) That the Community Safety Partnership progress report be noted.
(2) That a further progress report on the Community Safety Partnership’s Action Plan and Performance be provided to the Crime and Disorder Committee in September, 2021.