To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on  11 July 2017 and the Extraordinary meeting held on 31 July 2017. (copies attached).

The minutes of the meeting held on 11 July 2017 and the Extraordinary meeting held on 31 July 2017 were approved as a correct record.

To receive any disclosures of interest from councillors in accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct for members.

There were none.

No Cabinet decisions have been called in.

No Cabinet decisions had been called-in.

A copy of the latest Forward Plan is attached.

If any members of the Committee have any issues they want to raise in relation to the Cabinet Forward Plan, please inform Terry Collier, Deputy Chief Executive, 24 hours in advance of the meeting with reasons for the request.

The Committee noted the Cabinet Forward Plan.

To consider the report on a review of Community Safety issues for Spelthorne Borough Council during the period 2016-2017.

The Committee will also be pleased to hear from Surrey Police and the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) on community safety matters. There will be an opportunity after each presentation to ask questions.

The Community Safety Manager gave an update on Community Safety issues over the past year. He detailed the performance data for the period April 2016 to March 2017 for the key priorities for the Community Safety Team: house burglary, vehicle crime, violence with injury and anti-social behaviour. During the period there was an increase of 8.1% in reported crime. He also highlighted the success of the Joint Enforcement Team (JET) which had dealt with high levels of enforcement issues particularly around fly tipping and abandoned vehicles.

He outlined the Community Safety activities that had been delivered with partner agencies including: Junior and Senior Citizen events, Partnership Action Days, development of a water safety strategy, launch of a High Impact Complex Drinkers pilot and the acquisition of portable CCTV equipment to address reports of fly tipping and low level antisocial behaviour at any location in the Borough.

The Community Safety Manager gave an update on the Neighbourhood Team which met on a six weekly basis with the Community Safety Team and the Joint Enforcement Team to discuss incidents of fly tipping and antisocial behaviour amongst other things.

The Surrey Chief Constable had identified Spelthorne as the leading Borough within a new area of partnership working to disrupt serious organised crime. He reported that Surrey Police had carried out a public confidence survey in August 2017, which showed a confidence level in Spelthorne of 94% - a 16.1% increase on the 4^th quarter of 2016/17.  

Members of the Committee asked questions in relation to the increase in recorded crime and significantly for serious sexual crime; the absence of modern day slavery from the report and the police responsibility for Traveller incursions.

Inspector Sproston of Surrey Police explained the reasons for the rise in reported crime, which were consistent with the picture nationally: that in addition to more reports being made of child sexual exploitation and domestic violence, changes to Home Office accounting rules had meant incidents that would not have been recorded as a crime in the past were now classified as such. This had a major impact on the statistics but would plateau in future years as the new recording method became embedded.

He praised Spelthorne for being ahead of the game in relation to its active investigation of serious organised crime including modern day slavery (MDS); it was the only borough in the Surrey Police force working with partners on an audit of serious organised crime and had been identified as a template for best practice. However, he stressed that community feedback was essential to remedy MDS.

Members thanked the Police for their community based handling of the national security operations over the previous weekend on behalf of affected residents. 

David Munro, the Police and Crime Commissioner for Surrey, gave an overview of the successes of his first year in office and the challenges he was working to address, as follows:

Done well:

·         Support for vulnerable people - great improvements had been made since Her Majesty’s Inspectorateof  ...  view the full minutes text for item 529/17

To consider a report on anti-social behaviour incidents in Staines-upon-Thames town centre and actions being taken by Surrey Police to deal with them.

Keith McGroary, Community Safety Manager reported there was a 19% increase in reports of crime and anti-social behaviour (ASB) in Staines-upon-Thames town centre in 2016 – 2017 compared to the previous year. This was the first rise in ASB following a downward trend for the past nine years.

He said there were reports that visitors to the town felt intimidated by the presence of large groups of young people from the Traveller community who were often quite loud and drew attention to themselves. The fear of ASB from this group put people off visiting Staines-upon-Thames on a Sunday.

Although there were occasions when very small numbers of these young people had committed ASB or incidents of petty crime, they were often tarnished with the blame for all such incidents, when in fact local offenders not connected to any specific community group were committing them.

A number of measures had been taken to deal with the problem / perceived problem, including using an intermediary from the Traveller community to help resolve issues and enhance community cohesion, and allocating an additional police resource to patrol the town on a Sunday.

He reported that Surrey Police were introducing a 6 month pilot with a 3 pronged response to address the issues raised concerning ASB on a Sunday around Engagement, Enforcement and Education.

Inspector Sproston commented that Staines town centre had radically improved in the evenings compared to 14 years ago and enjoyed a successful and growing night time economy with many restaurants. He recognised that incidents of ASB had increased in the town centre, predominantly on a Sunday during the daytime and said the police were working to identify the cause of the problem.

He outlined the 3 pronged approach:

Engagement – with businesses: Inspector Sproston had agreed to sit on the board of the Business Improvement District to understand what the issues are and how best to deal with them; with security companies: extra training and devolved powers to enable them to deal with ASB.

Enforcement – already agreed additional resources in the town on Sundays

However, he believed that having too many uniformed officers in town would have a negative effect on behaviour. Everyone acting anti-socially in Staines would be treated the same.

Education - Working to change the mind-set of the community and businesses with regards their perception that this is a problem created solely by the Travelling Community, as research did not support this. A Sergeant who was himself a Traveller had agreed to sit on a Traveller forum to get people together and help break down barriers.

He invited the Committee to review the effectiveness of the pilot after six months by which time they hoped to have improved the situation in Staines.

Joanna Hall, Two Rivers Manager and board member of Staines-upon-Thames Business Improvement District (BID) said that the increase in ASB incidents last year were down to one young man, who had now moved away from the area. She acknowledged that the issues with Travellers in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 530/17

To receive a detailed progress update on The Bugle project.

The Group Head for Regeneration and Assets provided an update report on progress with ‘The Bugle’ project.

Resolved to note the update report on The Bugle project.

To agree to form a Task Group to consider: The regeneration of Staines-upon-Thames, Ashford Town Centre and Zone 6 and including river frontage development in Spelthorne, and to appoint members to the Task Group.

The Committee was asked to agree to form a Task Group to consider: the regeneration of Staines-upon-Thames, Ashford Town Centre and Zone 6 and including river frontage development in Spelthorne.

The Chairman informed the Committee that a Leader’s Task Group for Economic Development existed with the stated purpose: ‘To advise the Leader and Cabinet on the views of councillors, local business and other stakeholders about issues pertaining to the main town and local centres in the Borough and how the economy of the Borough might be further fostered by actions over which the Council has control or influence.’

In order to ensure that the Committee did not duplicate resources, he suggested it would be more productive for the Committee to scrutinise the work being done by the Leader’s Task Group, rather than appoint a further Task Group to look at similar issues.

The Chairman proposed that a standing item be placed on the agenda to consider the work of the Leader’s Task Group on Economic Development and that the Committee would have an opportunity to question a representative from that Group on the work they were undertaking.

Resolved to include a standing item on the Committee’s agenda to consider the work of the Leader’s Task Group on Economic Development.

To consider the Committee’s work programme for the remainder of the Municipal year.

A member requested that an item be added to the Committee’s Work programme looking at the work and operations of the Environment Agency. The Chairman proposed that as other elements of the environment of the River Thames had previously been raised as possible topics for the Committee to look at, that this be added to the Work Programme.

Resolved to note the Work Programme for the remainder of the Municipal year, subject to the inclusion of an item on the environment of the River Thames.