Minutes:
The Chair opened the Informal part of the Committee meeting and the Housing Strategy and Development Officer confirmed that preparations for the Annual Review of the Community Safety Partnership were underway.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer noted the Community Safety Officer wanted a representative of the Fire Service in the March 2024 Committee meeting to provide insight.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer highlighted that the statutory duty of BDC was to scrutinise all local safety partnerships. There would be one-off large-scale meetings to facilitate this, as well as other more regular meetings in the interim. As many Members were new to the Council, it was important to invest more time and increase their knowledge of these partnerships.
A Member noted they were more confident on the Fire Safety Policy than the Community Safety Partnerships.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer informed that the Fire Safety Policy came under the Community Safety Partnership, so the Member’s knowledge was more than initially realised. The Partnership would be to ensure the general safety of neighbours.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer explained that the purpose of the Bolsover Partnership was to encourage cross-government working and promote an increase in health, skills and social cohesion. There would also be some Community Safety scrutiny, but this would not be in-depth.
The proposal was a general introduction into the Partnerships based on local statistics to identify trends. This would include contributions from the Community Safety Officer and a member of the Police Force (and how the police link with the Community Safety Partnership). The trends identified could be on Domestic Violence (DV); the Licensing Team had noted, in old data, that there had been a decrease in DV, but actually DV was an issue to investigate further, as the Police had changed their methods of research. The Housing Strategy and Development Officer added that Members would also have their own information to highlight from their Wards.
One Member was thankful for some explanation, but felt the Committee was still unsure of what they would be scrutinising.
The Scrutiny Officer explained they would be researching everything that BDC did, which they would then bring to the Committee’s attention.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer added that the Climate Change and Communities Scrutiny Committee was unique at BDC as it had a wide remit. The Committee would have Reports to scrutinise as Officers submit them, and the Committee itself would ensure that Reports are correctly delivered to other Committees if they felt them relevant to do so. This would also be on an ad hoc basis, as some Reports, like the Health and Wellbeing Framework Update earlier in the Committee meeting, would only be once a year.
A Member asked, in terms of Safety, flooding was an issue experienced recently by Clowne and Pinxton, so should the Committee be involved.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer explained flooding was a Derbyshire County Council issue, so the Community Safety Partnership would not deal with this.
A Member stated this may not be the case, as Members had received emails from the CO of BDC stating that a Derbyshire County Councillor had believed the management of flooding events was down to District Councils, and not the County Council. The Member stated this needed to be addressed by Derbyshire County Council if this was their issue to manage.
A Member added that the public would phone Derbyshire County Council who would say it was BDC’s responsibility, and then BDC would state the vice versa.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer explained that this was likely an issue of coordination. Derbyshire County Council and BDC were supposed to respond to issues like flooding together, though it was Derbyshire County Council that would lead such missions, not BDC.
The Monitoring Officer highlighted that flooding prevention was not part of the Community Safety Partnership, but this was something for the Committee to investigate as this clearly was an issue of communication.
A Member stated that they had been working with Derbyshire County Council on a management plan, so working with the County Council could be successful.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer stressed this was about what Members might find locally. Issues like fire, young people gathering, and car crime would be for the Committee to investigate.
A Member added that Clowne had a prevalence of car crime; recently three cars were stolen from homes, likely ‘done to order’. The Member also noted that the Police had asked the Parish Council to fund more CCTV.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer asked if the Police had asked to fund mobile or large-scale CCTV, as all Town centres already had CCTV.
The Member confirmed the Police had requested more CCTV to use on the outskirts and indeed even outside of Clowne.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer noted that BDC already had lots of mobile CCTV cameras, but BDC did suffer from its geographical location on a county border. The Housing Strategy and Development Officer also noted it would be interesting to know the Police’s thought processes when it came to requesting Parish Councils fund their CCTV.
A Member noted that their Parish Council had recently funded such CCTV, but they had received a grant from Derbyshire County Council. However, they noted the Police did not chase up as much crime reporting as expected.
As for reaching young people committing crime, it was proving difficult to reach through to them. SNAP did provide support, but it was still proving difficult. For the mobile speed cameras, the Member noted these would need to be coordinated, though most areas were covered.
A Member argued the Strategic Leadership Team had responded to such issues, but some areas were ‘hidden’ from the collection of data, with large numbers of inappropriate relationships and drug dealers.
The Chair noted cars were being damaged in Bolsover North, with then one company in Shuttlewood being a repeat offender for misusing land and causing issues of parking. The Member argued many different Partnerships would go to talk but fail to hand-out any fines.
The Housing Strategy and Development Officer stated this was an Enforcement issue, adding the Committee could investigate issues of CCTV and locations with issues. They then asked who would be viewing all this CCTV footage.
The Chair added that CCTV was initially great for Town centres, but this would ultimately push crime and Anti-Social Behaviour out into the local community, into areas of depravation which already had issues needing to be addressed.