Meeting documents

1 THE ISSUE

1.1 This sets out proposals for the allocation of the Council's Community Safety Budget for 2002/3.

2 RECOMMENDATION

2.1 Funding is approved for the following projects from the community safety budget.

2.2 A Community Warden Scheme for Bath at a cost of £70,000 (full year, recurrent).

2.3 Youth facilities for the Twerton area at a cost of £21,000 (non-recurrent) with £2,500 recurrent maintenance costs

2.4 Trading Standards Test Purchasing Operations £3,000

2.5 Bobby Van £8,412

2.6 Support for victims of racial harassment £8,234 (2002-3)

2.7 Retail Crime Initiative £3,000

2.8 Local Action Group environmental improvements fund £6,300

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3 FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS

3.1 .The total community safety budget for 2002/3 is £225,506. Of this £55,277 covers staffing costs, £74,073 is committed to commissioning existing services. . This leaves a budget of £96,156 unallocated. Annex 1 of this report invites members to consider allocating £70,000, which represents growth in the budget from the 2002-3 financial plan, to the Community Warden scheme.

3.2 In addition to the proposals made in this report, Annex 2 to this report is a response to a petition to Council requesting the development of outdoor facilities for young people in the Twerton Area. It invites members to consider allocating £21,000 for this development. Annex 3 to this report is a response to a petition to Council requesting the installation of CCTV in the Moorland Road area. There are insufficient resources to support this proposal.

3.3 The proposed allocation can be summarised as follows:

4 PROPOSALS FOR FUNDING

4.1 The purpose of the Community Safety Budget is to support projects and initiatives which will help the council achieve its Best Value Performance Indicators of reducing burglary and vehicle crime, and will contribute to the district wide Community Safety Strategy.

· The strategic priorities for 2002-2005 are:

· To reduce the amount of crime committed by the most prolific offenders

· To reduce crime related to alcohol and drug misuse

· To reduce the involvement of young people in crime and disorder, as victims and offenders.

· To provide support for vulnerable communities: older people, disabled people, victims of racial harassment and victims of domestic violence

· To provide reassurance for our communities

· To promote local community safety action.

4.2 This report puts forward a number of proposals which would contribute towards these priorities.

4.3 Trading Standards Test Purchasing Operations. The need to reduce problem use of alcohol by young people has been identified as an important area for action and will contribute both to reducing youth disorder and reducing alcohol related crime. A number of measures are planned, including publicity for licensed premises on their responsibilities to check proof of age, and the range of proof of age cards which are acceptable locally. In order to back this up it is recommended that Trading Standards undertake Test Purchasing Operations, which would lead to prosecutions if licensees were selling to under 18s. £3,000 is requested to match fund the cost of undertaking four operations across the district over the next year.

4.4 The 2002-5 Strategy puts particular emphasis on the need to support victims of crime and provide reassurance to communities. Three proposals which would contribute to this aim are recommended.

4.5 Message in a Bottle This scheme is designed to provide reassurance for older people and to ensure an effective response for emergencies. Vulnerable older people are encouraged to keep details of any medical conditions, next of kin and other essential information in a bottle. This is stored in the fridge as this means it is easy to find if emergency services are called to the house, and would be safe in the event of a fire. The Soroptomists, a voluntary women's organisation have volunteered to help with distribution of the packs, and we will seek support from other voluntary organisations and from town and parish councils. £3,000 is required for the cost of printing packs, stickers and leaflets. Although this scheme is relative low cost to establish, it will require an investment of administrative time to ensure that it keeps going. There is currently no capacity for this within the council, and we will need to work with voluntary organisations to provide this.

4.6 Bobby Van This is a very successful scheme which provides support to vulnerable victims of burglary or other crime. The scheme employs a trained carpenter who can fit security measures to the homes of victims or vulnerable people. He has also been trained to give crime prevention advice and provide reassurance to people. The scheme currently operates one day a week in Bath & North East Somerset. It has been running since October 2000. In that time it has undertaken 175 Jobs of which 63 (1/3) were repeat victims and 112 (2/3) were pro-active work for potential victims of crime. 93 were undertaken in Bath, 66 in Keynsham, and 16 in Radstock, which is a true reflection of the burglary rates for this district. No person visited by the bobby van has become a repeat victim. £8,412 is requested which represents one fifth of the annual cost of the service.

4.7 Support for victims of racial harassment. The Partnership Against Racial Harassment has identified the need for additional support for victims of domestic violence. Bath & North East Somerset Council currently commissions a service which operates for three days a week. This service has the capacity to provide support for 30 new cases a year. Many cases involve more than one person, either families or groups of people. Some will need support over a long period of time, particularly those people experiencing repeat victimisation. There has been increasing demand on this service over the last two years. In 2000-01 the service received 19 new referrals involving 59 individuals. In 2001-2 it received 36 new referrals involving 99 individuals. A full time service would also have the capacity to undertake development and awareness raising work. £12,351 is requested to increase the commission for this service to full time. £8,234 would be required to increase the capacity for the remaining eight months of this year.

4.8 Retail Crime Initiative. Retailers in Bath currently participate in two schemes linked to the retail crime initiative. The Retail Radio link currently has 68 members of whom 25 are active participants. This enables stores to link with each other and with the CCTV system to warn of the activities of shoplifters. This scheme has the potential for expansion to other stores, and also to deal with a wider range of issues such as public nuisance and lost children. The Retail Crime Initiative has a smaller membership of stores which meet the criteria of having security staff and monitored CCTV. This group shares intelligence about known shoplifters. Membership of Retail Radio Link costs £50 and of Retail Crime Initiative £100. There is potential to develop both schemes, and to become self financing through subscriptions. However this requires development work which neither the Police nor the Council currently have capacity to undertaken. An allocation of £3,000 would pay for a person one day a week to undertake this work, with the aim of making the scheme self financing. This would be match funded from the Retail Crime Initiative's own budget. This scheme would contribute to the priorities of reducing drug related crime and persistent offending, as a significant proportion of people committing drug related crime are persistent shoplifters. It would also contribute to the priority of providing reassurance to the community.

4.9 Local Action Groups Environmental Fund. There are currently three Community Safety Task Groups covering Bath, Norton Radstock and Keynsham. There are also an increasing number of local community safety action groups. These are formed in any area where residents and other organisations are concerned about crime and wish to work together. Home Office funding has been allocated to employ a development worker to support these groups and help them develop local projects. Part of their role will be to seek external funding. It is recommended that a budget of £6,300 is allocated in order to support local action groups in pump priming or match funding small schemes which will improve safety and reduce fear of crime. The availability of this funding will provide an incentive to help groups get off the ground.

5 OTHER OPTIONS

5.1 A number of other proposals have been considered which would contribute to the strategic objectives. The Community Safety Partnership has been allocated three sets of funding from the Home Office: Communities Against Drugs (£130,000 plus £31,000 for the Drug Action Team), Partnership Development Fund (£51,000) and Safer Communities Initiative (£50,000). In addition funding is available through the Drug Action Team to tackle drug related crime and through the Youth Offending Team to tackle Youth Crime.

5.2 The Community Safety Partnership will be supporting the following initiatives through its Home Office funding:

5.3 Safer Communities Initiative:

· Anti Social Behaviour worker with young people. This post is proposed in response to the work of the Strategic Youth Issues Project Group which identified the need for a more co-ordinated approach to young people involved in anti-social behaviour, and also earlier interventions through Acceptable Behaviour Contracts before problems become more serious.

· Alleygater. This is a scheme which has been operating in the Oldfield Park area. The area had been suffering a significant number of burglaries where access was gained from the rear of the premises. Back alleys to some streets have now been gated using funding from the Community Safety Budget with contributions from local residents. Residents are keen to see the remainder of the area covered by the scheme.

· Police Local Action Groups. It is proposed to purchase computer equipment to support the role of the Police in local community action groups.

5.4 Partnership Development Fund: Community Safety Local Development Officer. This new post will work as part of the Community Safety Team to support Community Safety Task Groups and Local Action Groups. Their main role will be to help these groups develop specific projects in their local area which will reduce crime and disorder and fear of crime. They will seek funding for projects and manage their implementation. The aim will be to increase the involvement of local people by demonstrating practical benefits.

5.5 Communities Against Drugs: Three projects have already been commissioned from this budget and workers have been or are being appointed. The Anti Social Behaviour Officer and Community Development Worker will work together in areas where there are problems caused by drug dealing and drug use to provide support and reassurance for the community and to take effective action against perpetrators. The Persistent Offenders worker will work with a small number of the most persistent offenders in the district whose crime is drug related. Their aim will be to get people into treatment for their drug problem and reduce their involvement in crime as a result.

5.6 An application for funding has been received by an organisation called P.E.O.P.L.E. This is a new group which has been set up by two local workers with backgrounds in the youth justice and criminal justice system. They are seeking to provide a range of support to ex-offenders including access to training, social and lifeskills, and work with families. They have a particular emphasis on out reach work in the North East Somerset area. The total cost of the project is £123,420 per year. Although other sources of funding have been approached none have yet been confirmed.

5.7 Support for this project is not recommended at this stage. Although it would fall within the strategic priority of reducing the level of crime committed by persistent offenders there is insufficient funding in the budget to meet the full cost, and no information is available on other sources of funding. Further information is also needed on the number of ex-offenders released to the B&NES, an in particular the number who have been involved in serious and/or persistent offending. Further work is needed with other relevant agencies such as the Probation Service to establish the need for this service.

6 CONSULTATION

6.1 The Community Safety Partnership have been consulted on the proposals which are recommended for support.

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