Issue - meetings

Cabinet RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL adoption of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership Rolling Plan 2009-12. 

The Plan can be accessed using the following link to the Council's website (www.scambs.gov.uk). Alternatively, a copy has been placed in the Members’ Room, or can be obtained from Democratic Services, telephone (01954) 713016 e-mail democratic.services@scambs.gov.uk. 

Council RESOLVED that the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership Rolling Plan 2009-12, submitted to the Cabinet on 12 February 2009, be adopted. 

Councillor RMA Manning moved, Councillor MP Howell seconded and Council RESOLVED, with no Members voting against, that the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership Rolling Plan 2009-12, submitted to the Cabinet on 12 February 2009, be adopted. 

Cabinet RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL adoption of the Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership Rolling Plan 2009-12.

Cabinet RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL adoption of the Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership Rolling Plan 2009-12. 

The South Cambridgeshire Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership (CDRP) was required by legislation to produce a three-year rolling plan based on an annual Strategic Crime Assessment.  The Scrutiny and Overview Committee had considered the plan in-depth and the Community Safety Officer was thanked for the supporting information he had provided to parish councils immediately following the meeting.

Concerns were voiced about the small number of actions which involved young people and Councillor MP Howell urged members to look at the content of the actions rather than the number, explaining that those involving young people were major actions, particularly aimed at addressing anti-social behaviour caused by drug and alcohol abuse and to raise the awareness of young people of their rights and responsibilities.  Councillor Howell also drew attention to the Council’s contributions to refuges in neighbouring areas for victims of domestic violence and its continued effort to support people and combat domestic violence.

Cabinet RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL adoption of the Crime & Disorder Reduction Partnership Rolling Plan 2009-12. 

The Strategic Assessment is available for viewing as part of the agenda pack on the Council’s website at www.scambs.gov.uk or a paper version is available on request from Democratic Services.

County Councillor Reynolds introduced this item to inform the Committee of progress with the draft South Cambridgeshire Crime and Disorder Partnership Rolling Plan 2009-12 and to give the Committee an opportunity to ensure that the Rolling Plan addressed the recommendations made by the 2008 Strategic Assessment.

The Committee was advised that the plan was an update of that created in 2008 and used three crosscutting themes to address five identified priorities.

Five priorities:

• Reducing burglary
• Reducing anti-social behaviour
• Reducing vehicle crime
• Reducing domestic violence
• Reducing re-offending.

Three crosscutting themes:

• Substance misuse
• Young people
• Community cohesion

Cllr Reynolds paid tribute to the partners and said that the task was to drive the plan forward.  He noted the cooperation between departments and partners.

Questions and Comments

In reply to a question it was confirmed that the CDRP reported to the LSP.

It was further confirmed that it was not the responsibility of the CDRP to ensure that incidents were reported in the local press.

The Committee acknowledged that it would be a challenge to include young people and, despite being invited to attend, none had turned up for Neighbourhood Panel meetings.

In reply to a question requesting an increase in high visibility police patrols, the Committee were advised that whilst the CDRP worked with the police, they did not manage operations.  For information the committee were further advised that SCDC had the third lowest number of police officers per 1000 residents and the forth-lowest number of support staff per 1000 residents in the country.  Cllr Hockney suggested that as high visibility police patrols had been identified as a residents’ priority then it was the role of the CDRP to reflect that wish, however County Councillor Reynolds replied that the CDRP presented a balanced view of residents concerns and accepted that individual requirements might not be met.

Following comment, members of the Committee were advised of the following:

Action 1.2a: The mediation service would draw on the day-to-day actions of partnership bodies, and would therefore not impact on the CDRP budget.

Action 1.3: The graffiti removal service had well advertised when launched, and County Councillor Reynolds advised that the CDRP was looking to improve communication between the partners.

Action 1.4: The Environmental Health team were co-ordinating litter picking activities.  The Community Safety Officer confirmed that the rationale behind the measure was the “broken window” approach where areas that appeared uncared for attract further anti-social behaviour.  It was also confirmed that more emphasis on the work to prevent anti-social behaviour would be included in the introduction to the section.

Action1.8:  Cllr Bridget Smith advised that there were no year 9 pupils at Gamlingay VC as they transferred to schooling in Bedfordshire.  It was requested if the activity could be directed at year 8s instead.  The Community Safety Officer confirmed that this request would be passed onto the County Council who ran the project.

Action 1.9a: It was confirmed that a target would be included once the information was received from the County Council.

Action  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17

The Community Safety Officer presented this report, which updated the Committee on South Cambridgeshire Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership’s Strategic Assessment which would be implemented in April 2009. The Chairman explained that scrutinising the governance of Partnerships and their budgets was part of the Committee’s remit.

The Community Safety Officer reported that the Partnership liaised with a sub-Group of Cambridgeshire Together and its members were represented on the Local Strategic Partnership Board to ensure “joined-up” thinking.

Community Safety event at Marshalls

It was suggested that the work of the Neighbourhood Policing Panels had allowed the public and parish councils to voice their concerns and this should affect the focus of the annual community safety event at Marshalls.

The Committee NOTED the report and requested that this issue be re-examined at its meeting in January.