Agenda item

Report of the Executive Director which provides Members with an update on the work of the Community Safety Partnership.

The Council has a statutory duty to scrutinise the work of the Community Safety Partnership. (Police and Justice Act 2006) and this is included in the remit of the Social Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Officers provided details of the various projects that had been completed by the Partnership, such as:

·         Safer Together – events which provided information to residents on things such as bike marking, neighbourhood watch, drug and alcohol services and many others.

·         Community Information Days.  One of the outcomes of these was the formation of a task and finish group for Hatfield Town Centre which produced an action plan to focus on issues such as fly-tipping, street drinking and anti-social behaviour.

·         MAGPYE – (Multi Agency Group for the Prevention of Youth Exclusion) is a group that works to prevent youth exclusion through partnership work.  The group includes representation from all secondary schools across the borough.  The aim of the group is support and intervention rather than punishment for young people.  The group shares information and ideas to prevent, where possible, young people getting involved in Anti-Social Behaviour.

·         Youth Champions – these were Year 12 students who had attended and learnt about road safety issues such as drink driving or texting whilst driving.  They had then returned to their schools, prepared their own presentation and cascaded the information to the other students.

Also in attendance for this item were representatives of Hertfordshire Police, Hertsfordshire Fire and Rescue Service and BeNCH (Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Probation).

The Police representative said that there had been some good work done in Woodhall where there had been an anti-social behaviour problem.  Due to the partnership working, there had been 19 arrests, drugs and cash had been seized and curfews imposed.

Members were advised that the Council is working towards becoming a third party Hate Crime reporting Centre.  It is hoped that both the council building at Campus East in Welwyn Garden City and the new Housing Office in Hatfield Town Centre would be the preferred locations.  A further report would be presented to the relevant committee with regards to this proposal.

The report provided details of the crime statistics.  It was noted that Harassment, including via social media would be reported separately in the reports next year.

The Fire Officer provided some information regarding the incidence of fires and how Welwyn Hatfield compared with the county figures.  There had been a decrease in the number of primary fires.  Fire injuries had been mainly smoke inhalation and a burned hand.

The representative from BeNCH reported that there had been a number of projects undertaken which had provided some excellent results.

There had been a significant reduction in the number of children on protection plans and a 6% reduction in children in care.

Tribute was paid to the Police for being pro-active in domestic violence cases.  There were issues with domestic violence cases being heard in courts not specially designated and this resulted in victims receiving less support.

Members were advised that the Police and Crime Commissioner had changed Community Safety Funding from 1 April 2017.  District and Borough councils, Herts County Council, Herts Community Safety Unit and other organisations with a atatutory function around community safety would have the opportunity to apply for funding between now and the end of November.  The total fund available is £800k.  Grants of up to £5k could be applied for, but the project to be funded needs to show innovation, be focussed on one of the PCC#s aims, show evidence of need and involve partnership working.

Members asked whether the young people involved in the Woodhall issues were local.  Officers said that they were.  Parents had engaged well with the CSP and some of the parents were shocked to hear of the behaviour of their child.

Members were advised that there were two pilot projects being funded, one on the issue of mental health with a specific school in the borough and the other funding of a PCSO as a single point of contact for secondary schools.

It was noted that a review of CCTV provision in Woodhall would be undertaken once the project to look at the council owned flats in the area had been completed.  This is currently being delivered by the Council’s Housing Trust.

The report provided information on the proposed Public Spaces Protection Order for Hatfield Town Centre.  It was recognised that there was a problem with street drinking in the area and this order would provide a broader range of enforcement powers.  A more detailed report will be presented to Council at a later date with details about the proposed new order.  The report will highlight its aims and objectives as well as how it will be enforced both in the short and long term.

Members thanked the partnership for the hard work which had resulted in some very positive outcomes.

NOTED the report which detailed the work of the Community Safety Partnership and the outcomes of many of the projects.  The Committee noted that the risk of crime locally remains low, but the partnership still continues to work to reduce crime and the effect crime has on residents of the borough.

NOTED that the ongoing financial support received from the Police and Crime Commissioner’s Office which enables a lot of the work of the Partnership, would change from 1 April 2017 and there were no guarantees of funding for the partnership from this date.

RESOLVED to support the Community Safety Partnership in its review of the current DPPO in Hatfield Town Centre.