To receive an update on Anti-Social Behaviour policy from the Assistant Director, Partnerships and the Assistant Director, Neighbourhoods.
The members of the Infrastructure Safety and Growth Scrutiny Committee have been invited to attend the meeting for this item.
Minutes:
The Chair reported that the members of the Infrastructure Safety and Growth Scrutiny committee had been invited to attend the meeting for this update, as the committees had considered that it was of relevance to both committees.
The Chair welcomed the Assistant Directors for Partnerships and Neighbourhoods to the meeting to provide an update on the work within the Council regarding Anti-Social Behaviour.
The Assistant Director, Neighbourhoods set out how the Council’s anti-social behaviour activities fitted in with the Council’s vision and purpose and its place based approach, including by building resilient communities and developing and safeguarding our environment and open spaces.
The Assistant Directors reported to the Committee on how the staff within each of their areas supported activities to reduce anti-social behaviour, as well as highlighting those staff which had day to day responsibility for this area, which sat with the Anti-social Behaviour manager, within the Neighbourhoods team. It was reported that the teams worked closely to ensure that relevant information was captured and feed into the work of the Partnerships team to ensure that appropriate services were commissioned.
The Assistant Director Neighbourhoods highlighted that the ambition was to ensure that the strategies developed were tenure neutral, and involved the effective triaging of matters raised, that they were aimed to support prevention, earliest help as well as enforcement. It was reported that when the HRA Business Plan was updated, a fund of £749,000 per annum was identified to support neighbourhood regeneration including community safety, and work was underway to identify areas where investment was required.
The Assistant Director, Partnerships reported that an Anti-social behaviour Policy had been adopted by the Council 2 years ago and highlighted that it set out the roles which the Council had, in particular:
· As a landlord in respect of the properties it manages;
· As an environmental protection champion, in respect environmental anti-social behaviour such as noise, dog fouling, graffiti, litter, rubbish and abandoned vehicles;
· As a community champion to support communities by promoting campaigns and projects to raise awareness of and improve the perception of ASB.
The Assistant Director, Partnerships outlined the Community Safety Plan and its priorities which included anti-social behaviour as well as domestic abuse, protecting the vulnerable in our communities, public place violence and disorder and road safety and the arrangements in place to work with our partners in this area, in particular with the police, where daily and weekly meetings took place.
The Committee sought clarification on the following areas:
· How the plans to invest in neighbourhoods were being rolled out, which it was reported included community engagement through the Tenant Consultative Group (TCG) in order to identify problems and then work on action plans, in partnership with communities. It was noted that in previous years members of scrutiny committees had attended the TCG, and the Chair agreed to contact the Leader of the Council to identify members for nomination from scrutiny to attend the TCG. It was highlighted that it was important to ensure that all plans developed should be done in consultation with local communities.
· Issues surrounding problem parking and the reporting of this. It was agreed that the Assistant Director Partnership would circulate details to Members on dealing with parking issues. The Committee discussed the Parking Toolkit which existed and suggested that this be reviewed and then circulated to Members. The Chair agreed to raise this matter with the Chair of Corporate Scrutiny Committee.
· Diversionary strategies and the services which the Council invested in to divert potentially anti-social behaviours into alternative opportunities and the Assistant Director Partnerships reported that a sporting project to divert ASB behaviour had been in place for a year.
· How the existence of and success of projects within this area were communicated, both to members and more widely. It was agreed that the Assistant Directors would consider this matter further, with the wider management team; with regard to the use of the MemberZone.
· When neighbourhood disputes became anti-social behaviour, and that this could depend upon the circumstances, although if the behaviour were causing alarm, distress or harassment, such behaviour could be anti-social and action considered.
· The importance of ensuring that the appropriate methods were used for reporting anti-social behaviour so that evidence was recorded contemporaneously.
· How effectively Hate crimes were dealt with, which the Assistant Director confirmed should be reported to the Police, but that the Council also commissioned services which the Council could directly use where necessary, and that training of staff in this area continued.
The Chair thanked the Assistant Directors for their attendance. They and Councillors Goodall and Standen then left the meeting.