Issue - meetings

The Scrutiny & Elections Officer advised Members of a change to the planned issues to be addressed under this item.  Due to a recent major incident, the Fire & Rescue Service could no longer be in attendance and the update from the Deliberate Fires Group would be rearranged to a future date.

Overview of Bolsover CSP, achievements, and future priorities

The annual review began with an update on the Partnership Plan, recent achievements, and future priorities.  The Housing Enforcement Manager briefed Members on the current draft Partnership Plan and explained that there had been an unexpected delay in receiving data from DCC which was impacting completion of the new plan.

A Member queried how well the Partnership was currently working as they were aware of how hard it was to get key personnel to commit to attendance/action.  The officer noted that it was an ever-increasing issue, particular with the Probation Service who had been subject to repeated change at a national and local level.  The officer did feel however, that Bolsover was one of the better attended Partnerships.  It was also noted that the regular staff changes within the Police and Fire Services made it increasingly hard to maintain working relationships.  One option to ensure improved engagement from Probation could be online meetings.  While the Council currently used Zoom, other partners used Microsoft Teams due to security restrictions and it was hoped the move to Microsoft 365 would mean that online meetings could be used moving forward to ensure attendance/engagement.

Proposed Priorities for 2023-2026 included:

• Reducing and Managing ASB & Criminal Damage

• Reducing Domestic Abuse, Violent Crime and Sexual Offences
• Prevent & Protect Duty (Counter Terrorism)
• Reducing and Preventing Acquisitive Crime (Vehicle Crime)
• Reducing Alcohol and Substance Misuse
• Reducing Risk of Child Exploitation
• One Cross Cutting Theme: Building and Cohesive Communities.

The partnership was supported by a PCC Grant of £25,000 to help deliver small scale projects on youth diversion, crime prevention, safeguarding, and emerging risk and threat.

Public consultation had taken place on the draft plan and the top 5 issues identified were not a surprise to officers, but it did show that littering was no less of a priority as ASB:

·         Anti-Social Behaviour 62%

·         Drug Use 55%

·         Burglary Dwelling 48%

·         Littering 48%

·         Vehicle Related Crime 45%

A Member asked if these priority areas were reflected in current crime figures.  The officer noted that ASB rates had in fact reduced and this was shown in a report to be considered under exempt business.  It was potentially more the fear of ASB rather than actual crimes that was fuelling the public response.

Members noted that shoplifting was a huge issue within their localities and was surprised that this didn’t show up in the public response.  The officer noted that maybe this wasn’t something that residents feared and as such didn’t rank as a priority for action.

The Housing Enforcement Manager briefed Members on recent achievements including:

Diversionary activities

·         Extreme Wheels – this includes the outreach provision which originally commenced during lockdown

·         Football projects during  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59