Agenda item

To receive the report of the Community Safety and Economic Development Manager on the annual review of community safety in Spelthorne Borough.

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 2015 to July 2016 for the key priorities for the Community Safety Team: house burglary, vehicle crime, violence with injury and anti-social behaviour.

Acting Inspector Josh Parish provided up to date crime figures from those presented in the report: all notifiable offences were down 5%; violence with injury was down; overall violent crime was up although this included such incidents as shouting on the street, fighting in the playground and offences committed by prison inmates. Vehicle crime was up but a team of offenders who had been responsible for a spate of such crimes were now in prison. The biggest drop had been in reports of anti-social behaviour which were down by 451 reports (30%) compared to the same period last year.  The Community Safety Manager was unable to explain the reason for the drop which he believed could have been due to a number of factors, including people losing patience waiting to get through on the 101 non-emergency number and hanging up the phone. Acting Insp. Parish commented that incidents could be reported in ways other than calling on the phone.

The Community Safety Manager highlighted the fact that a need by Surrey Police to identify savings and still deliver core policing to local communities had led to a re-structure in April 2016 and as a result the Community Safety Team had seen a stark rise in residents contacting them particularly about neighbourhood issues. In addition, the decision by the Police to vacate their tenancy at the Council offices had resulted in a significant drop in communication and mutual exchange of information. The new model, called Policing in Your Neighbourhood (PIYN), was currently under review.

Acting Insp. Parish commented that the re-structure had not resulted in a reduction in police numbers, but that it had taken time to train up staff. Response police officers had been allocated specifically to the borough, so they would get to know the offenders and the areas to target. The police were aware of the issues that the changes had brought about but reassured councillors that they would give the police better resilience in future.

Acting Insp. Parish responded to issues raised by Residents’ Associations relating to: nuisance caused by motorbikes; anti-social behaviour in Shepperton and Hengrove Park, Ashford; and litter from HGVs parked in laybys. He agreed to pass on the information the police had not previously been aware of to be looked into, and explained the actions police were already taking to deal with known issues as resources allowed.

The Community Safety Manager responded to concerns about non-working CCTV cameras in Hengrove Park explaining the plans in place to upgrade all cameras to wireless connectivity by April 2017. This was more cost effective than assessing and repairing individual cameras. He agreed to have the Hengrove camera prioritised for replacement when the upgrade began.

Surrey’s Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), David Munro outlined his role and highlighted as priority issues: raising with the Court Prosecution Service the length of time it takes to bring serious sexual and domestic abuse cases to court; transferring as many funds as possible to frontline services aided by an estates strategy aiming to raise as much money as possible from building sales; and undertaking two projects to improve 101 non-emergency responses by bringing in additional staff (including health professionals) and installing a proper call handling system.

Mr Munro explained that the aim of PIYN was to have police officers closer to their neighbourhoods. They were undergoing training to enable them to have the skills to support a victim throughout the process from reporting to conviction. He said he took the comments made in this forum seriously and would undertake a thorough review to look at all the implications of this policing model.

Mr Munro responded to further questions from the floor.   

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Ian Harvey, thanked Surrey Police for their work and support and the PCC for all the efforts he made for the borough.

Resolved to note the report of the Community Safety Manager on the review of community safety 2015-2016.