Agenda and minutes

Councillor Ben Shelton declared an interest in respect of the Policing, Crime and Disorder item as he was the Police Champion for SCDC, a member of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership and a member of the Police and Crime Panel.

To authorise the Chairman to sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 21 March 2013 as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 21 March 2013 were agreed as a correct record, subject to the following additions:

(a)  That reference be made in the minutes relating to Minute 51, sub-minute 45 `Update on the Mechanical Biological Treatment (MBT) Processing Plant’ of the on-going legal dispute between AmeyCespa and Bam Nuttall, the sub-contractors.

(b)  The attendance of Councillor Janet Lockwood at a Cambridgeshire County Council Overview and Scrutiny meeting relating to Transport on 27 March 2013.

Minute 45 – Update on the MBT Processing Plant

Mike Hill, Director of Health and Environmental Services informed the Committee that as a result of the resolution made at the last Scrutiny & Overview Committee meeting he had contacted the County Council and was awaiting a response from them. In the event that a satisfactory response was not received, he would invite representatives from the County Council and AmeyCespa to attend the next Scrutiny and Overview Committee meeting on 4 July 2013.

Minute 53 – Youth Council

A list of best practice when meeting with young people had been prepared by the Lead Officer for the Youth Council and HR and e-mailed to all SCDC councillors. It was re-iterated that councillors should not put themselves in a situation where they were alone with a young person.

None received.

(a)  To receive a presentation from Sir Graham Bright, the Police and Crime Commissioner on his priorities for 2013/14

(b)   Policing update by Chief Inspector Darren Alderson, Area Commander for South Cambridgeshire, including discussion on Neighbourhood Police Panels

(c)    A briefing note and appendices relating to the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) are attached

The Chairman of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee having declared an interest in the following item, handed over the Chair to Councillor David Whiteman-Downes, Vice-Chairman of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee.

(a)       Sir Graham Bright, the Police and Crime Commissioner addressed the Committee and informed those present of the following:

·         The changes he had made since his election in November included publishing a budget that had subsequently been approved and publication of the Police & Crime Plan

·         South Cambridgeshire was the 3^rd safest district in the country

·         Localised policing was working extremely well

·         Consideration was being given to providing Smartphones to police officers that would enable the reduction in paperwork, the ability to check car number plates and the history (if any) of people that had been arrested

·         243 Special Constables were presently employed, the Commissioner would like to see an increase to 350 and give them specific tasks to be undertaken

·         A grant had been given to Neighbourhood Watch towards the launch of `Alert’ software that enabled inputting of information that would be available to all PCs. The Commissioner would like Neighbourhood Watch to be more proactive, particularly relating to Victim Support

·         The Commissioner’s main aims were to reduce crime, protect young people, tackle anti-social behaviour and engage with the public

·         The employment of an Outreach Worker, reporting directly to the Commissioner that would enable the engagement with parish councils, schools and businesses was currently being processed

·         The Commissioner would like to see the public engage with the Police by reporting crime via the telephone number 101. He had reduced the response time for answering calls from 9 minutes to 30 seconds

·         The Commissioner was working with Country Watch and Farm Watch to tackle rural crime

(b)       Chief Inspector Darren Alderson, Area Commander for South Cambridgeshire addressed the Committee as follows:

·      The Police force had been recently re-structured

·      There had been a 4.7% reduction in crime; 233 crimes less than the previous year

·      South Cambs had the lowest crime rate in Cambridgeshire, despite it being targeted due to its wealth

·      There had been 285 burglaries last year with offenders travelling to commit the offences

·      Due to an increase in reporting, Domestic Abuse had increased by 30% to 28 cases with some repeat offenders. Historically 15-18 year olds were not included in the statistics. However, that had now changed and as a result it was anticipated there would be a further rise in the number of offences in the future

·      Drug offences had increased by 25%, mainly due to a reactive approach by stopping and searching potential offenders.

·      Almost all of the 360 businesses in the South Cambs area had suffered a commercial burglary

·      There had been an increase in shed burglaries

·      There had been a reduction to 668 offences in criminal damage the previous year

·      The satisfaction rate with the Police service had improved from 66.5% to 89.6%

·       A target had been set to reduce crime by 4%

·      E-CINS, a cloud-based IT solution to manage Anti-social Behaviour casework tasks had been  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.

To consider the attached draft report prior to presentation to Council on 23 May 2013.

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee AGREED the draft Annual Report prior to presentation to Council on 23 May 2013.

Notes of the ICT informal working group held on 16 April 2013 attached.

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee received the notes of the ICT informal working group held on 16 April 2013 and NOTED that an additional informal working group meeting would be held to discuss the Council’s procurement process.

The end of year quarterly report will be circulated separately to members of the Scrutiny & Overview Committee for any comments prior to consideration by Cabinet on 3 June 2013.

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee NOTED that the end of year quarterly report would be considered by the Executive Management Team on 22 May 2013 and circulated to members of the Committee for any comments following that meeting. The report would then be considered by Cabinet on 3 June 2013.

To consider the items contained in the Council’s Forward Plan published on 23 April 2013 for possible future scrutiny.

The Scrutiny & Overview Committee having noted the contents of the Council’s Corporate Forward Plan AGREED that a workshop, open to all Members, be arranged in the autumn in respect of the Localised Council Tax Support Scheme 2014/15.

The Committee NOTED the contents of the draft work programme for 2013/14, together with the addition of update reports to the 4 July 2013 meeting on the ICT Working Groups considering Procurement and Redundant Equipment.

Scrutiny monitors are invited to report to the Committee regarding Portfolio Holder meetings attended since the last meeting and specifically raise any issues challenged and the result and/or issues where the Committee could add further value. The meetings were as follows:

·         Planning Policy and Localism, 21 March 2013 (Cllrs Douglas de Lacey and Bridget Smith)

·         Leader’s, 28 March 2013 (Cllrs Lynda Harford and Ben Shelton)

·         Planning Policy and Localism, 11 April 2013 (Cllrs Douglas de Lacey and Bridget Smith)

·         Corporate and Customer Services, 18 April 2013 (Cllrs Jose Hales and Lynda Harford)

Nothing reported.

Future meetings of the Committee are scheduled to commence at 6pm on the following dates:

Thursday, 04 July 2013

Thursday, 05 September 2013

Thursday, 07 November 2013

Thursday, 16 January 2014

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Thursday, 03 April 2014

The dates of future meetings were noted as follows:

Thursday, 04 July 2013

Thursday, 05 September 2013

Thursday, 07 November 2013

Thursday, 16 January 2014

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

Thursday, 03 April 2014

All meetings to commence at 6pm