Agenda and minutes

Election of the Chairman

i.To elect a Chairman for the forthcoming year.

ii.Election of the Vice Chairman

To elect a Vice Chairman for the forthcoming year.

Cllr Richard Britton was elected Chairman for the forthcoming year.

Cllr Andrew Bennett was elected Vice Chairman for the forthcoming year.

Apologies were received from Chris Henwood – Co-opted Independent member.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 5^th March 2015.

Decision:

·       The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday 5^th March 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Councillor Trevor Carbin declared none pecuniary interests in matters relating to Customer Vision, Community Speedwatch and Licensing. 

·       Welcome to the new members of the panel.

·       Note that Mike Veale has been appointed as the new Chief Constable for Wiltshire following the panel’s confirmatory hearing on 11^th May. He started in post on 1^st June.

·       Cllr Alan Bishop – Swindon Borough Council and Cllr Teresa Page – Swindon Borough Council were welcomed to the Panel.

·       That Mike Veale had been appointed as the new Chief Constable for Wiltshire following the Panel’s confirmatory hearing on 11^th May. He would start in post on the 1^st July 2015. The Panel were advised by the OPCC that the outgoing Chief Constable Pat Geenty was currently on a month’s leave before retiring from the service.

The Panel welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you wish to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the first page of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

Members of the public are able to ask questions in relation to the responsibilities and functions of the Panel at each meeting. Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the Head of Democratic Services at Wiltshire Council no later than 5.00 pm on Friday 12^th June 2015. Please contact the officer named on the first page of the agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

There was no public participation.

For the panel to receive formally and comment on the PCC’s annual performance report for the year 2014-15.

Kieran Kilgallen – Chief Executive, OPCC introduced the PCC’s annual performance report for the year 2014-15. The PCP was asked to note the draft annual report and to provide comments on the annual report.

The Panel welcomed the fact that OPCC had previously circulated the report to Panel members with an invitation to submit comments – which some members had already done.

The annual report was aimed for public audience and captured the highlights of the year and the commissioner’s assessment of progress against his plan. 

The annual report was structured around the original Police and Crime Plan six priorities.

Questions raised by the PCP included:

·       Had the PCC now abandoned having 300 special constables as part of his plan?

a.A  review was being undertaken and that there would be a report to SCT (Senior Command Team)  and CMB (Commissioner’s Monitoring Board) in September. An update to the Panel would then follow. 300 was a provisional number only. Superintendent Bateman was developing a strategy for their future use and there was a need to move away from Specials who wanted to have a career in policing to those that just wanted to volunteer within the community. This was a national problem – it took time to recruit people who then lost interest before training was complete and so it was difficult to achieve numerical targets.

·       How is the operational plan affected by not having the 300 special constables?

 a.The Plan was not compromised as Specials were an additional support only.

·       How is the training of police cadets working out?

          a.Wiltshire Police was looking to start training based in the south of the county, at present the police cadet programme was two years into a three/four year programme.

·       You have to work hard to find any negatives within the annual report.

a.There was no place for blame in partnership working, people need to be challenged rather than blamed.

·       There appears to be no mention of the Neighbourhood policing teams in the report.

          a.This was an omission, which was noted.

·       Not a great deal of mention of the strategic alliance, surely this needs to be expanded on.

          a.Noted.

The Chairman thanked the OPPC for the report.

The Commissioner presented a report setting out his quarterly performance data for the fourth quarter of 2015.

The Commissioner advised that a joint working group had been developing a new format of performance report reflecting the outcome of the performance culture review. The new report would be used in the assessment of the first quarter of 2015-16, which would be reported to the Panel in September 2015. The structure of the report would be in three parts:

·       Dashboard of high level measures with context to support trends

·       Deep-dive into a priority to discuss specific details and progress

·       Any areas which the PCC wishes to highlight (points of excellence, poor results, press interest, concern, significant risks etc)

Points made by the PCP included:

People feeling safe during the day/night

“The percentage of people feeling safe during the day has remained very high throughout the year, rising close to 95 per cent. This is encouraging to see and reflects the low rate of crime which takes place in Wiltshire”. However, the fact that fewer people report feeling safe at night may be exacerbated by Wiltshire Council’s new policy of switching off some street lighting.

a.Yes, this would make some people feel less comfortable at night

Licensing Activity

“The licensing task group continues to jointly assess problematic premises and develop joint tasking and actions to tackle these locations. The three hub-based licensing officers are embedded into the partnership tasking process and increased information is now being shared through this” – when would the licensing team be back up to full strength?

a.We are looking to get the licensing team back up to full strength after losing a key member of the team.

Unlocking the resources to deliver

“My wish to see police officers maximising their engagement with the public can be measured through the findings of the public opinion survey I commission. The survey takes place twice a year in spring and autumn and in total surveys over 4,000 members of the public” -  when would the Spring 2015 results be available to the Panel?

a.These results would be available at the next PCP meeting.

Resolved:

·       To receive and note the contents of the Commissioner’s report setting out his quarterly performance data for the fourth quarter of 2015.

The Chairman thanked the OPPC for the report.

For the panel to receive formally and comment on the Commissioner’s new Police and Crime Plan.

The Commissioner introduced the Revised Police and Crime Plan 2015 – 17 and thanked the many stakeholders who had taken the time to comment on the plan. Stakeholders would have until the end of June 2015 to make further comments.

Questions from the PCP:

Would the PCC be involving other stakeholders, such as young people and ethnic groups etc?

a.Yes, the plan was very much in its early draft form, with more groups and organisations having the opportunity to comment on it.

The Chairman thanked the Commissioner for the plan and looked forward to the viewing the final version and Panel discussions at a future PCP meeting.

Performance Review.

For the performance review working group to report back on their work and to put forward the new model for reporting performance to the panel. The first such report will be presented at the September panel meeting.

Update on Strategic Alliance.

Commissioner Angus Macpherson to give a verbal update on progress towards forming the Strategic Alliance with Avon & Somerset.

The Chairman to update the panel on the formation of a new task group to support the Strategic Alliance.

i.Police Performance Review Working Group

Henry Powell – Senior Scrutiny Officer, Wiltshire gave a brief overview of the report that was contained in the agenda pack.

Decision

·       The reported was noted.

ii.Strategic Alliance Task Group

The Commissioner gave a brief overview of the report that was contained in the agenda pack.

Decision

·       That a task group was formed to support the delivery of the strategic alliance between the Wiltshire and Avon & Somerset constabularies.

·       That the task group would decide how to report back to the Wiltshire Police and Crime Panel.

·       That the task group would be made up of Cllr Julian Johnson, Chris Henwood and Glenis Ansell. The task group would be supported by Henry Powell.

The Chairman thanked Henry Powell and the Commissioner for their report overviews.

Angus Macpherson to present the PCC Diary report.

The PCC Diary report which set out a summary of commitments the Commissioner had undertaken since the last Police and Crime Panel meeting on 5 March 2015 was presented to the Panel.

Questions raised by the PCP included:

·       What was the current position re the sale of Chippenham Police Station?

          a.A potential buyer was interested in buying the site, with a view to building social   housing on it. Nothing had been signed as yet.

·       When would Wiltshire Police be resuming the speed awareness courses?

          a.The PCP would receive an update on this at the next meeting.

The Chairman thanked the Commissioner for his update.

Decision

·       The report was noted.

To note the forward work plan.

The Forward Work Plan was noted.

·       Thursday 3 September 2015 – 10.30 am start – City Hall, Salisbury.

·       Wednesday 2 December 2015 – 10.30 am start – Swindon Borough Council Offices.

The next meeting of the Police and Crime Panel will be on Thursday 3rd September 2015 at City Hall, Salisbury.

Future meeting dates were:

Wednesday 2 December 2015 at Swindon Borough Council.