Agenda and minutes

Councillors Cherry Beath (Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development) and David Dixon (Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods) sent their apologies.

At this point in the meeting declarations of interest are received from Members in any of the agenda items under consideration at the meeting. Members are asked to indicate:

(a) The agenda item number in which they have an interest to declare.

(b) The nature of their interest.

(c) Whether their interest is a disclosable pecuniary interest or an other interest,  (as defined in Part 2, A and B of the Code of Conduct and Rules for Registration of Interests)

Any Member who needs to clarify any matters relating to the declaration of interests is recommended to seek advice from the Council’s Monitoring Officer before the meeting to expedite dealing with the item during the meeting.

Councillor Patrick Anketell-Jones declared an other interest in the agenda item 9 (Community Safety Plan: Anti-Social Behaviour Government review) as the property landord.

The Chairman informed the meeting that this morning all Members of the Panel received an email from Councillor Lisa Brett (Member of this Panel and also a member of the Police and Crime Panel) asking them to read and comment on the final draft of the strategic priorities for crime reduction measures in B&NES 2013-2017. 

Councillor Lisa Brett explained that the document arrived from the Police & Crime Commissioners office on Wednesday 13^th March afternoon with an urgent mark.  The Police and Crime Panel will meet at 10am Friday 15^th March meet to approve the Commissioners Police & Crime Plans.

The Chairman thanked Councillor Brett for bringing this document to Panel’s attention as soon as she was aware of it.

The Chairman felt that the Panel did not have enough time to digest this document and send their feedback. 

The Chairman also said that the message from the Panel is that the Police and Crime Commissioner should engage this Panel much earlier in future consultations.

Nevertheless, it was AGREED that Members of the Panel will send their individual comments to Councillor Brett by 10am Friday 15^th March.

The Chairman informed the meeting that David Redgewell will address the Panel under item 9 on the agenda.

To confirm the minutes of the above meeting as a correct record.

The Panel confirmed the minutes of the previous meeting as a true record and they were duly signed by the Chairman with the following amendment:

·  Page 3 of the minutes, para 6, should read: ‘…in terms of reliability…’

The Panel are asked to consider an update from the Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods.

It was RESOLVED to note the report.  Members of the Panel also AGREED to have ‘Connecting Communities’ item at one of the Panel’s future meetings.

The report provides a briefing of the Government’s draft Anti-social Behaviour Bill and the rationale behind this. 

The Panel will receive a presentation on the new proposals and will set out what this means for Bath and North East Somerset Council and the Community Safety Partnership.

There will be an opportunity to hear about the latest outcomes from the recent Home Office ‘Community Remedy’ consultation – which closed 7 March 2013.

The Panel will be invited to an open question and answer session at the end of the presentation.

The Chairman invited David Redgewell to address the Panel.

David Redgewell said that there is a vast amount of graffiti at Keynsham and Oldfield Park station which cost tax payers quite a lot of money.  Also, these stations were the last stations not having the CCTV in Avon area.  David Redgewell pointed out that the Council, together with the newly appointed Police and Crime Commissioner and British Transport Police, should look into providing the CCTV on those two stations.  The Anti-Social Behaviour Bill will enable closer co-operation between Local Authorities and the Police forces. 

The Chairman invited Sue Dicks (Community Manager for Partnership Delivery) to give the presentation.

Sue Dicks replied to points raised in David Redgewell’s statement by saying that the Council has already had the discussion with the British Transport Police on the areas to fit the CCTV and the outcomes are quite positive.  Sue Dicks also informed the Panel that the Council are leading on this matter.

Sue Dicks than gave the presentation where she highlighted the following:

• Landscape of reform for Anti-Social Behaviour
• Why is reducing anti-social behaviour a government priority?
• Reasons behind Government’s commitment
• What did the Government do so far?
• What did the White Paper say?
• Current ASB Tools and Powers
• ASB proposed bill
• Part one – Crime Prevention Injunction
• Part two – Criminal Behaviour Order
• Part three – Police Dispersal Power
• Part four – Community Protection Notice
• Community Protection Order (Public Space)
• Tackling Environmental ASB
• Part five – recovery of possession of dwelling houses: ASB Grounds
• Part six – Empowering communities ‘Community Trigger’ – A new right to victims and communities
• Empowering victims
• Next steps

A full copy of the presentation is available on the Minute Book in Democratic Services.

The Panel made the following points:

Some Members of the Panel found part 3 of the Bill (Police dispersal power) most useful and asked if the consultation would slow down the process.

Sue Dicks responded that no advance consultation would be required, so it wouldn’t slow down the process.

The Panel asked if the part five of the Bill (Recovery of possession of dwelling-houses: ASB grounds) would speed up the process particularly in the areas with the high density of student accommodation/houses considering that currently it takes 6 months to ratify noise or other disturbance in those areas.

Sue Dicks replied that there is no reason why landlords could not sort these issues straight away now though part five of the Bill will make these cases easier to manage.

The Panel asked if the part six of the Bill (Community Trigger) could be used maliciously and should elected Members be involved more in the actual provision of the Act (once it gets Royal Ascent in 2014).

Sue Dicks responded that part of the Local Government Association’s concerns was part six of the Bill and the Police now will have a system identifying vulnerability of victims of anti-social behaviour and people who make regular complaints.  The evidence from the community trigger pilots will be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

This report sets out an update on the work of the Police and Crime Commissioner for Avon and Somerset, focusing in particular on activities impacting on communities within Bath and North East Somerset.

The Economic and Community Development Policy Development and Scrutiny Panel are asked to agree that:

·  The report be noted

·  Any key issues or questions raised be reported through the relevant processes

The Chairman invited Sue Dicks to introduce the report.

Sue Dicks took the Panel through the report and added that the new Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Sue Mountstevens, will visit Midsomer Norton on 22^nd March and talk to the Community Alcohol Partnership (CAP) and DPO.  Sue Mountstevens will also visit Southside Project in Bath and meet with Curo staff and residents.  More visits are planned for 14^th May, in particular to Radstock and Keynsham (including ‘Community@67’ project).

Sue Dicks informed the Panel that the budget for the Community Safety in B&NES is £60k with the focus on reduction in domestic violence, Anti-Social behaviour and hate crime.  Sue Dicks explained that £60k is for projects only and not for the staff salaries. 

The Panel noted that bullet point 4.4 of the report listed the PCC’s priorities.  One of the priorities is ‘To tackle violent crime, particularly against women and girls’.  The Panel commented that this doesn’t seem to include men and boys who could be also victims of the violent crime.

Sue Dicks responded that B&NES priorities do include men and boys in this category.

The Panel commented that B&NES seem to be managing well community protection with less funding and asked if there is a case that we should invest in this matter as business, to sell it to other authorities.

The Chairman said that he and Councillor Brett debated this issue on number of occasions and came across unwillingness of some parts of the Authority to look at the options to sell this to other authorities.

It was RESOLVED to note the report and instruct the Democratic Services Officer to send the future Panel dates to Sue Mountstevens (Police and Crime Commissioner).

This report presents the latest workplan for the Panel.

It was RESOLVED to note the future workplan and to invite the new relevant Cabinet Members, subject to the May meeting of the Council, at the next meeting of the Panel.