Agenda item

Verbal Updates

To receive any verbal updates from representatives, which could include:

·       Parish and Town Councils

·       Climate Friendly Bradford

·       Wiltshire Music Centre

·       Streets Ahead

·       Health and Wellbeing

·       Local Youth Network

·       Bradford on Avon Town Council

·       Neighbourhood Policing Team

·       Wiltshire Police – Chief Constable

Written Updates

The Board is asked to note the following written and online updates attached to the agenda:

·       Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

·       Wiltshire Police – Road Safety Update

Updates were received from the following partners:

·       Climate Friendly Bradford

Andrew Nicolson member of Climate Friendly Bradford and Wiltshire Climate Alliance addressed the Area Board. The following points were raised:

·       Wiltshire Climate Alliance would be keen to provide a presentation to the Area Board about topics of their concern, to which it was agreed that they would be welcome to present at the Climate themed Area Board meeting that would be organised in the future.

·       Mr Nicolson took the time to ask some questions of the Area Board, which were answered by the Chairman.

·       Streets Ahead

The Area Board received the following verbal update which covered the following matters:

·       Streets ahead had responded to the air quality action plan as well as providing other feedback.

·       Health and Wellbeing

The Area Board received the following verbal update from Cllr Johnny Kidney, which reiterated that the Health and Wellbeing Group was now up and running again with the next meeting set to take place on 25 September 2023 at 10.30am.

·       Bradford on Avon Town Council

The Area Board received the following verbal update from Cllr Katie Vigar on behalf of Bradford on Avon Town Council. The update covered the following matters:

·       The Town council had held a business forum in July, which had been ran by a professional independent advisor, with over 30 local businesses having attended to discuss the challenges they faced and how they might be addressed.

·       Having now finished the skatepark, consultations were underway for improving the play park at Poulton with initial designs provided by a company.

·       There would be time before the October Full Council meeting to discuss the redevelopment of the pavilion on Culver Close, with architect designs set to be displayed half an hour before the meeting, followed by a vote.

·       Neighbourhood Policing Team

The Area Board noted a written updates attached to the agenda. In addition, Inspector Andy Lemon provided a verbal update which covered the following points:

·       An overview of the neighbourhood policing team was provided as well as their priorities and vision for the community.

·       An outline of some of the recent work conducted by the team was provided, with it noted that next week the team would be supporting local rural crime with farmers.

·       The team had recently supported two operations – Op AIDENT (modern slavery and human trafficking) and Op SCEPTRE (knife crime).

·       Data was provided in relation to recent incident statistics, with it noted that there had been a spike in shoplifting, with work set to take place with shops to encourage more active reporting to catch offenders.

·       The following five priorities for neighbourhood harm reduction were outlined:

o   Child centred policing

o   Evidence based policing

o   Burglary

o   Public confidence

o   Anti-social behaviour

After the verbal update, there was time for the following questions and points to be made:

·       Lorry watch in Bradford on Avon was discussed, with it noted that Wiltshire Council had consulted on taking responsibility for the town bridge with the potential of installing an ANPR system in the next year.

·       It was also noted that within the air quality action plan, Wiltshire Council had included the potential of reducing the weight limit on the bridge from 18 to 7 tonnes, which would potentially cause more offenders to cross the bridge.

·       It was noted that information would be passed through the Chairman in relation to how helmet cam footage might be used to report cars passing too closely to cyclists as well as how pedestrians might report motorists not using seatbelts or using mobile phones whilst driving.

·       The Chief Inspector agreed to check data and engagement levels for previous iterations of Operation Close Pass.

·       Wiltshire Police Chief Constable

The Area Board received an update from Wiltshire Police Chief Constable Catherine Roper which covered the following points:

·       The responsibility of the Chief Constable was to deliver against the PCC plan, with Wiltshire Police placed into special measures “engage” in summer 2022.

·       As part of being placed into “engage”, it was highlighted that Wiltshire Police had an insufficient strategic framework, they weren’t investigating to an effective standard and were not providing effective support for victims.

·       As part of the work to rectify these issues, business as usual work was separated from the response to “engage”, as though the Police were busy, they had not driven things in the right way, with a need to get the fundamentals right and improve public trust, visibility and transparency.

·       To improve transparency the Chief also produces an open letter to the PCC to provide an update of what work has been completed.

·       The Chief Constable attends a performance oversight group in London every 6 months, where she presents to the HMI and Home Office. The next meeting is next week and the update from this will be publicly available.

After the verbal update, there was time for the following questions and points to be made:

·       Information was provided about the “Right Care Right Person” initiative, which was set to be rolled out by the Police as a review to how the Police responds to people in crisis, with an opportunity for partner organisations to step in and provide mental health support with the possibility for freeing up Police resource for other tasks.

·       The importance of carbon neutrality and climate emergency within Police policy was stressed, with it noted that the Chief Constable would review the policies in place.

·       A point was made in relation to officer morale, to which it was noted that a target operating model review was set to take place to better improve the Police shift system and resilience. Further reference was also made to how the demands on student officers had now been scaled back to improve morale.

·       Dorset & Wiltshire Fire and Rescue Service

The Area Board noted a written updates attached to the agenda.