Agenda item

To consider a report by the Community Safety Manager (copy attached) and comment on the activity of the Joint Community Safety Partnership in 2016-2017 and the Local Priorities for 2017-2018.

9.40 a.m. – 10.20 a.m.

 

Councillor Emrys Wynne declared a personal interest as he sits as a JP in North East Wales.

 

Prior to discussion, members were informed by the Chair that the Committee was acting in its capacity as the Council’s designated Crime & Disorder Committee in accordance with sections 19 and 20 of the Police and Justice Act 2006.

 

The Lead Member for Corporate Standards introduced the report (previously circulated) which detailed the activity and performance of the Joint Conwy and Denbighshire Community Safety Partnership (CSP) during 2016-17 and outlined the Partnership’s priorities for 2017-18. 

 

The Community Safety Manager briefed the Committee on the background to the establishment of community safety partnerships along with their statutory roles and responsibilities.  She drew members’ attention to the priorities set by CSPs on a regional basis and the local priorities set by the joint CSP for progression in Conwy and Denbighshire. All of which were listed in the report.  Appendix 1 to the report contained the actions identified with a view to delivering both local and regional priorities, whilst Appendix 2 detailed the Partnership’s performance with their delivery.

 

During her introduction the Community Safety Manager highlighted the following points:

·       the reduction during the year in acquisitive crime and in adult and youth re-offending rates, all of which was extremely positive.  Central government had provided funding to CSPs to specifically focus on these areas, therefore there had been a correlation between the targeted approach and the reduction in the figures;

·       there had been an increase in number of incidents of crimes against persons, such as anti-social behaviour (ASB), reported during 2016-17.  This was partly attributable to the fact that the definition of violent crime now included a person pushing another individual over or knocking them down;

·       unfortunately there had been a number of well publicised incidents of violent crime in Denbighshire during recent months.  The CSP’s role when such incidents occurred was to focus on low level work within the communities e.g. improve lighting, provide safety messages on how to keep safe etc.  The larger agencies, such as the Police and Fire and Rescue Service undertook the investigative work;

·       all actions in the action plan had either been delivered, or were on track to be delivered.  There had been a delay with respect of receiving data from the Fire and Rescue Service with regards two of its initiatives, this had been attributed to changes in personnel.  The CSP had nevertheless been assured that both initiatives had exceeded the set targets;

·       the CSP’s work spanned a wide-range of crime and disorder matters from anti-social behaviour to environmental crime, rural crime to international terrorism, low level petty crime to serious crimes against persons and properties;

·       in relation to the Welsh Government’s (WG) dashboard exercise regarding terror prevention, there was one area which the CSP required to strengthen.  That area related to educating the public to know how to respond if they were caught up in a terrorist incident whilst at home or away from home;

·       the problems relating to ASB in and around Rhyl Railway Station had improved greatly following the utilisation of Supporting People funding.  The funding provided services to individuals who were known to be causing problems in the area.  The problem would probably never be eradicated, but the situation had improved in recent years;

·       work was being undertaken with a number of agencies with a view to dovetailing services to address problems caused by substance misuse in both Conwy and Denbighshire.  Whilst this work was reaping benefits, more still needed to be done to address the problem;

·       incidents of fly-tipping in the West Rhyl area had improved during the year, but the situation was still being closely monitored;

·       the situation relating to ‘begging’ in Rhyl also seemed to have improved, this could be attributable to the unfavourable weather during the summer as there had been no criminal reports of ‘begging’ recorded recently.  It was emphasised that ‘begging’ was not only a problem in Denbighshire, but a problem regionally and nationally, as individuals who ‘begged’ were usually transient by nature;

·       North Wales Police had been proactive in recent months in respect of rural crime following a spate of sheep worrying incidents and agricultural vehicle and equipment thefts.  The Police were adopting a multi-faceted approach i.e. a campaign for owners to keep their dogs on leads when visiting the countryside, visiting livestock markets and other agricultural outlets to highlight security messages to farmers  and to offer smart water marking of equipment etc.; and

·        since 2012 CSPs had been responsible for undertaking ‘Homicide Reviews’ when suspicious deaths occurred within their boundaries.  Following two recent domestic related deaths in Denbighshire the CSP was currently in the process of setting up these reviews.  Such reviews were multi-agency reviews chaired by an independent person, which consequently had cost implications for the CSP.  Discussions were currently underway with the Council’s Section 151 Officer as to funding of the reviews.

 

Responding to members’ questions the Head of Business Improvement and Modernisation and the Community Safety Manager advised that:

·       whilst there had recently been a handful of serious crimes committed in the county, particularly in Rhyl, such incidents were extremely rare.  One incident had been classed as high level organised crime, which was becoming a UK wide problem, whilst a further two incidents had been classed as domestic related incidents;

·       they had spoken to the local Police Chief Inspector who had confirmed that the recent murders had been isolated incidents.  However the Force was concerned about the expansion of gang related crime from inner city areas in the UK to other areas, such as North Wales;

·       powers contained in Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 had been used in Rhyl to stop and search people for knives;

·       Denbighshire County Council had recently participated in a knife amnesty campaign, with Council depots being utilised as points where people could dispose of any knives;

·       whilst the proposed new Corporate Plan, subject to Council approval, would have a priority which would include an ambition to reduce domestic violence, members may wish to consider including in the Plan some aspirations relating to reducing knife crime in the area;

·       CSP partners did visit schools regularly with a view to educating pupils about the health dangers of substance misuse and the criminal penalties associated with drugs etc.;

·       the county’s rural market towns, as well as the more urban coastal areas, were supported by the CSP’s work in conjunction with partners such as the Police, in their bids to reduce ASB and drug-related problems;

·       Denbighshire’s Public Protection Department had set an extremely low-tolerance threshold for any licensed premises or taxi drivers that breached licensing rules.  This zero-tolerant approach was paying dividends.  The Corporate Safeguarding Group also robustly monitored whether all required Disclosure and Baring Service (DBS) checks were up to date;

·       Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) Awareness training was mandatory for all taxi drivers in Denbighshire;

·       they would make enquiries with the Fire and Rescue Service regarding the replacement programme for ‘old’  or ‘faulty’ smoke alarms (members were also advised to raise their concerns with Councillor Meirick Lloyd Davies in his capacity as the Chair of North Wales Fire and Rescue Authority);

·       the different approach used to deliver CSP actions in both counties did not cause the Partnership any problems;

·       whilst the current report was accompanied by an Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA), Well-being Impact Assessments(WIAs) would be undertaken for any new policies developed in future to deliver the CSP’s priorities;

·       it was recommended that any queries or concerns members had with Kingdom Security’s environmental crime enforcement work should be raised with the Head of Planning and Public Protection Service; and

·       if members had any community safety related concerns they should contact the Community Safety Manager, the Lead Member for Corporate Standards or Business Improvement and Modernisation Service staff who could forward their query to the relevant CSP partner organisation for resolution.

 

During the discussion Committee members reported that:

·       from their recent experience of North Wales Police’s Rural Crime Team they had nothing but praise for them as they were always extremely sympathetic to them when they contacted them about various problems.  The Team would shortly be using un-manned aircrafts (drones) in a bid to combat crime in rural areas; and

·       having raised concerns from constituents about drug-related anti-social behaviour in the area around St. Peter’s Church in Ruthin with the Police, they had been advised that there had not been a sufficient number of complaints direct to the Police from residents to enable them to address the problem.  However, one councillor reported that he personally had reported ASB in that area to the Police, but was still awaiting acknowledgement of his complaint.  The Community Safety Manager undertook to follow this up with the Police’s Neighbourhood Team for Ruthin.

 

At the conclusion of the discussion the Committee:

 

RESOLVED that subject to the above observations, to commend the Community Safety Partnership’s activities and performance in tackling crime and disorder in Denbighshire