Agenda item

Report of the Head of Community and Housing Strategy on the work of the Welwyn Hatfield Community Safety Partnership over the past twelve months.

Members received a presentation from the Community Partnerships Manager on the work of the Community Safety Partnership over the last 12 months.  In particular, the Committee were asked to note:

·        The eight principles that guided the work of the partnership, as set out in the report; and

·        The five priorities reviewed and refreshed in September 2021, set out in detail in the Strategic Action Plan, and summarised as:

·        To help people to feel safe within their homes

·        To help people feel safe in their community and local environment

·        To identify and protect vulnerable people

·        To support, protect and identify victims of domestic abuse whilst also tackling the root causes and preventing harmful relationships; and

·        Supporting the community through Covid-19 recovery. 

Officers clarified the following points in response to Members’ queries:

·        The reporting of anti-social behaviour, and neighbour disputes had increased due in part to the public health measures to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, and consequentially, Operation Brillo had been re-invigorated to successfully tackle youth ASB hotspots

·        The 12% reduction in burglaries could not be correlated with the prevalence of people working from home, as the figure was compared to 2019 data pre-pandemic

·        There remained a challenge to secure participation from the probation service on the Responsible Authorities Group

·        Diversionary activities were provided for the whole community, in addition to being actively promoted to tackle youth anti-social behaviour.

·        The Crucial Crew event had not taken place during the pandemic, and a home learning pack had been utilised

·        The Domestic Abuse Co-ordinator post is fixed – term and externally funded

·        The 3-year plan 2019/22 was scheduled to be refreshed in September 2022

·        The CSP remains open to working with all partners and the voluntary sector.

Members queried how the success of raising confidence and awareness would be measured. Officers responded that the raising of public confidence would be measured through Echo Link, and the evaluation of responses from priority setting forums. Those vulnerable people not online, would benefit from the OWL engagement leaflet which was distributed by Officers. Raising awareness would be measured by the number of views, likes and downloads from various social media campaigns.

Members asked whether the Annual Monitoring Report relating to development management and the Local Development Scheme, was used in understanding and targeting crime hotspots. The Executive Member for Leisure and Community Safety responded and undertook to continue to liaise with the Executive Member for Environment, Planning, Estates and Development. Officers assured Members that the data used by the partnership was dynamic rather than a backward look, and the work of the partnership was guided by the Strategic Needs Assessment. 

A motion to agree the recommendations set out in the report was proposed by Councillor A. Hellyer and seconded by Councillor R. Trigg.

RESOLVED (unanimously)

That the Committee note:

1)               The report and presentation of the Community Safety Partnership’s successful work over the past 12 months

2)               That the risk of crime in the local area remained low; and

3)               That the Partnership continued to work to reduce crime, and the impact that crime had, on residents of the Borough.