Issue - meetings

Report of the Director of Neighbourhoods and Development attached.

The Leader of the Council (Councillor Paul Foster), the Director of Neighbourhoods and Development (Jennifer Mullin) and the Chief Inspector of Lancashire Police (Gary Crowe) presented a report on the Community Safety Partnership to the Committee and responded to members’ comments and queries.

The Community Safety Partnership is a statutory body made up of representatives from local authorities, the police, fire and rescue authorities and health and probation services. Members were informed that South Ribble Borough Council works collaboratively with Chorley Council within the Community Safety Partnership but that this is not a formal arrangement.

In response to queries around the statistics on violence against a person offences and the delay in this information being available, members were informed that this was largely due to technical issues. The data would be available in the week following the meeting and would be shared with members.

Although it was highlighted that South Ribble is a safe area in comparison to others across the county, members were informed that the key priorities of the Partnership included anti-social behaviour, serious and organised crime, and vulnerabilities including domestic violence, hate crime and substance abuse.

These priorities are listed within the Community Safety Partnership Plan which is created using statistics from the police survey and from responses relating to fear and opinions of crime in the ‘Living in Lancashire’ survey. Consultation on this had also been undertaken through a Strategic Assessment which provides specialised data on long-term issues and threats. Members queried this and asked that more detailed information on the data be shared with them. The Community Safety Plan was also requested.

Surveys form part of the consultation on community safety. Lancashire County Council consults with their partner agencies and the police before surveys are distributed. Crimes are then ranked based on data and a crime severity score in order to identify priority areas.

The use and effectiveness of CCTV in preventing and detecting crime was queried. CCTV was acknowledged as being invaluable as a deterrent to casual criminals and anti-social behaviour. There is also an evidential value of CCTV in that it can link suspects to crimes based on their location and thereby reduces deniability.

Members queried the new neighbourhood policing model which had come into effect in March 2019. Under this, South Ribble had gained four new task force constables and an emergency response team were now based in the borough. Members compared South Ribble, which shares a Chief Inspector with Chorley, with West Lancashire which is similar in density to South Ribble but has their own Chief Inspector. Assurances were provided that the allocation of Chief Inspectors is based on need and not geographic size. 

In response to discussion on community engagement and crime, examples such as the ‘Coffee with a Cop’ scheme which is held in McDonalds in Leyland were provided to demonstrate the methods used to engage with residents. Emphasis was placed on preventing crime by young people, which is often tackled through diversionary tactics as utilised in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16