Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr Caryl Sydney-Smith – Swindon Borough Council.

Cllr Peter Hutton – Wiltshire Council – Member of Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Authority.

Cllr Abdul Ali – Swindon Borough Council – Member of Dorset & Wiltshire Fire Authority.

There were no Chairman’s Announcements.

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 3 clear wkg days before meeting. 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.

The Commissioner explained that in January 2019 he had presented to the Panel a paper which showed that the Government has made decisions surrounding both local and central funding which had a significant impact on the funding options available to him.

The paper that the OPCC had provided in January concluded with the Commissioner suggesting that a £24 increase in the Police part of the Band D Precept (a 13% increase) was appropriate. This would result in the Band D police part of the precept rising from £182.27 to £206.27 in 2019-20.

Clive Barker gave a brief overview of the MTFS report.

The Chairman thanked Clive Barker for the content of the MTFS report.

The Panel requested that the minutes noted that the consultation results had shown a good response from Wiltshire residents, but a lack of responses from Swindon residents, and that minority groups hadn’t appeared to have had much engagement from the OPCC.

The Police and Crime Panel were given the opportunity to discuss the Commissioner’s proposals, after which a vote on the Police and Crime Commissioner’s proposed Council Tax precept for the year 2019-20 was taken.

Decision

·         That the Panel supports the Commissioner’s decision to set a precept of £53.743m.

·         That this would require council tax to be set on all property bands based on £206.27 for a Band D property, and would represent a £24 (13%) increase on the 2018-19 level.

The Chairman thanked the Commissioner for his report.

Cllr Brain Mathew had raised three points listed below which the Chairman agreed would be listed in the minutes.

·         Cognisant of the 89 responses that concerned affordability, and the fact that Wiltshire receives less than almost any other authority the committee requests that efforts continue to obtain a fairer settlement from Central Government.

·         That having heard complaints in the recent past about the response times of both the emergency 999 and 101 phone service that response is maintained to at least the current level and if it is shown to drop the proposed cuts in staff numbers to this area should be reconsidered.

·         That despite the need allocate 14 officers in order to take Firearms back in-house, the remainder of the extra officers being funded by the precept increase should go to enlarge the resources available to the CPTs.

To note the future meeting dates below:

·         Thursday 28 March 2019 – Corn Exchange, Devizes

·         Thursday 6 June 2019 – County Hall, Trowbridge

·         Thursday 5 September 2019 – City Hall, Salisbury

·         Thursday 19 December 2019 - Swindon Borough Council Offices

·         Thursday 28 March 2019 – Corn Exchange, Devizes

·         Thursday 6 June 2019 – County Hall, Trowbridge

·         Thursday 5 September 2019 – City Hall, Salisbury

·         Thursday 19 December 2019 - Swindon Borough Council Offices