Agenda and minutes

The Chairman, Councillor Richard Britton welcomed everyone to the meeting of the Southern Wiltshire Area Board.

There were none.

To approve and sign as a correct record the minutes of the previous meeting held on Thursday 28^th November 2019.

Decision

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 28^th November 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were none.

To receive Chairman’s Announcements including:

·       Launch of Community Safety Directory

·       2^nd April at 7.00pm – Our Community Matters Conference

The Chairman made the following announcements:

·       The Smartwater presentation under item 8 would be moved forward due to the long distance the speaker had to travel.

·       Draft Highways Investment proposals would be available on the agenda of the next meeting on 12 March, to allow any suggestions on the schedule to be fed back.

·       The next meeting of the Community Area Transport Group was scheduled for 19 February.

·       The ‘Community Matters’ Event would be held on 2 April at 7.00pm

·       The launch of the Community Safety Directory would be part of the CEM update later on the agenda. Thanks were given to Merv who had made a really big input to the Directory.

·       Fire & Rescue Service

·       Wiltshire Council Updates

·       Healthwatch Wiltshire

·       Clinical Commissioning Group

·       Current consultations

http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm

The board noted the written reports and information items attached to the agenda.

Jerry Herbert, Deputy Police & Crime Commissioner

Jerry Herbert, Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner gave a presentation on the proposed increase to the Police precept.

Police Estate – A formal announcement would be released tomorrow about a Police Officer touch down location at Downton Library. This would be a place for the Community Officers and PCSOs to drop in and take a comfort break, and be accessible from.

We need to pay for the Officers that help us to stay safe, this costs around £120 million per year. Only 60% of the funding comes from Central Government. We now know what the Home Office grant will be, but we still need to identify what we need to raise locally.

We are aiming to provide 49 new Officers next year and are currently working to recruit those. Community Policing is the most visible part of Policing to most people in Wiltshire. Next year we plan to continue with investment.

The proposal this year is to increase the Policing precept by £10 pa which works out to around 84p a month for the additional policing. This will enable us to increase the number of Officers and continue the good work in making Wiltshire one of the safest places to live.

The commissioner was running a consultation and it was live until noon tomorrow. There have been 3000 responses so far.

Questions and comments:

·         How many officers would be allocated to the rural southern Wiltshire patch? 

Answer: The Chief Constable decides where he will deploy his Officers. Pete may be able to say how many officers came in to his patch last year?

Pete – Your dedicated Officer’s for each area are listed in the Police update attached to the agenda. 

·         I made contact with the PCSO for our area, do you get your Officers to go to the local residents meetings?

Answer: Yes where we can we will come along. Please invite us so we know they are happening. We are very flexible.

·         The Chairman noted that the Police & Crime Panel would next meet on 6 February, he asked for a show of hands of those present who would be in support of the increase. The majority present did support the proposal.

·         John Blocksidge – Every year we see an increase and nothing improves. So when will all of these changes happen. 

Answer: I am sorry if you feel things have not improved. We do have more Officers now in frontline roles. It is the role of those Officers and PCSOs to be visible in some of the local communities.

The changes to the training programme came from a National decision by the College of Policing. The majority of Officers will now enter the force on what is effectively an apprenticeship. There would be a 12-week tutorship period, and a 2-year probation period. During that time recruits would have a variety of other training. At the end of a 3-year period they would be accredited with a degree. They would be away slightly more than previously,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

a)    Grant Showcase – Clarendon Juniors Football Club

b)    Community Engagement Manager Update  - Karen Linaker

c)     Community Policing – Inspector Sparrow to briefly present his latest update report, followed by Gary Higgins from SmartWater to deliver a brief presentation.

a)    Grant Showcase – Clarendon Juniors Football Club- Richard Pearce.

I came to you a year ago to ask for £5000 to support our club. We have many more teams now and were able to purchase 6 sets of floodlights. We can now light our pitch to increase the use for training session on the pitches.

We have 11 pitches to play on and the clubhouse is also used for a meeting place for members and families. We have expanded the club and now changed our plans to amend the toilet configuration.

We now need another set of goals, so if you have a spare £2,000 then yes please.

b)    Community Engagement Manager, Karen Linaker updated on the following:

•        Working with a local volunteer on a new eco-friendly villages directory

•        People were invited to sign up to a challenge at:

 www.wiltshirewildlife.org/waste-free-february

•        Planning for the launch of Make A Friend Be A Friend in Downton and surrounding villages - Wilton had just launched their project, Karen would watch how that pans out and learn from any mistakes there.

•        The ‘Our Community Matters’ Conference was planned for 2^nd April at Trafalgar School in Downton starting at 7.00pm.

•        Whiteparish Youth Group – A new Chairman was in place and there had been 30 young people in attendance at the vibrant youth club which was doing well. The activities commissioned by the Board were being enjoyed. They have some ideas and would also like to see the Police drop in to visit them.

•        Community Safety Directory – this initiative came out of the June meeting. The Chairman, Merv and Karen had been working together over the last three months on the full directory. A directory of resources to stimulate practical measures for people to protect themselves.

We would like the Parish Councils to appoint a Community Safety lead and consider what further guidance they would like.

c)     Community Policing – Inspector Pete Sparrow

In addition to the written Police update included in the pack, Pete explained that about 12 months ago there had been a spike in crime particularly in the Redlynch area. It was important as a community, people were able to take measures to protect themselves.

Pete introduced Gary Higgins Director of Smartwater who presented information on the product and proposals for a pilot scheme in the Southern Wiltshire community area.

•        A reduction in house burglaries in our communities

•        Rural and urban schemes available

•        Successful small village schemes protected by Smartwater.

One of the key elements was crime reduction. The Smartwater product had been around for around 25 years. If bought for your home, you would be sent a pack which contains a vile of Smartwater.

The liquid contains fluorescents which if activated, would remain on skin for up to six weeks, and longer on clothes. All that was required was a spot the size of a full-stop for forensic testing.

Over 30k churches had taken the contract to use  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To receive presentations from Council Officers and the Police, and to discuss how anti-social behaviour is tackled locally.

Speakers: Rowena Lansdown – Antisocial Behaviour Officer WC, Karen Golden – Youth Offending Team WC and Inspector Pete Sparrow

The Chairman introduced Rowena Lansdown – Antisocial Behaviour Officer, and Karen Golden – Youth Offending Team (YOT) Officer to present the item with Inspector Pete Sparrow.

A copy of the presentation slides are attached to these minutes.

Rowena, worked within the Vulnerable Communities Team for the south of the county.  She explained that the definition of Anti-Social Behaviour was “conduct that has caused, or is likely to cause, harassment, alarm or distress to any person”.

Showed a DVD of the Fiona Pilkington case. In that case none of the agencies were talking to each other. In Wiltshire the monthly meeting brings all of the teams together.

The Anti-Social Behaviour Risk Assessment Conference (ASBRAC) was not a statutory function, but a recommendation from the Home Office as good practice to facilitate a multi-agency response to anti-social behaviour (ASB)

Governance sat with the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) which was made up of representatives from Wiltshire Council, the Police, Fire and Rescue authorities, health and probation services (the 'responsible authorities’). 

Rowena’s team worked with colleagues in the YOT to work with individuals, and the Mental Health Team was a huge contributor to their meetings.

Comments and Questions included:

·       For most residents troubled with ASB issues, their first call would be to the Police, so did they make a referral to you?

Answer: Yes, that is right, but also I now have access to the Police system, so I can look in to reported behaviour.

Pete – Rowena is a regular presence in our office, we spend a great deal of time together.

·       We have had a terrific ASB problem, the Police had been very supportive. Our problem was two children aged 12 and 14. The last incident they took their grandmothers car and drove it around. These children have been through the system, so where do they go?

Answer: Karen Golding – we have two groups of work, one way of working is through prevention, working closely with police and schools. Or if they have been to court and received a court order we work with them then. We have various specialist Officers and have a lot of resources at our disposal. We have a parenting Officer able to carry out one to ones with them.

There is also a Restorative Justice Officer that looks at the child’s behaviour and the consequences of their actions on those around them. We have resources around conflict resolution, and anxiety stress.

Pete - I attend the Contextual Safeguarding meeting each month where we look at all cases across Wiltshire. We look at them as a wider picture. All agencies are around one table. There was also a practitioners meeting which is more locally focused.

·       What was the benchmark for intervention, as I called three Tri-agency meetings for an issue in my division. It was as if we actually had to catch someone shooting someone dead before the team would come in. Answer: I am not aware of that at all – I  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Remaining Budgets for 2019/20:

The Board will consider the following applications for funding:

Community Area Transport Group Funding

The Board will consider one bid to the CATG Budget from:

·        A collaborative bid from Landford PC and Downton PC for Bus shelter repairs – requesting £1,238.57 (50% of total project cost).

A report from the Highways Engineer will be circulated at the meeting.

Community Area Grants Scheme

The Board considered two bids to the funding scheme for 2019/20, as detailed in the report attached to the agenda.

Salisbury Pride UK – Requested £5000 for the Salisbury Pride UK Festival 2020.

The applicant, Caroline Corbin – deputy Mayor of Salisbury spoke in support of the application, explaining that the LGBT community were marginalised, and that the project aimed to bring all of the community together and to achieve better integration and understanding of one another.

Questions:

·         What does inclusivity involve?

Answer: It includes anyone and everyone, all are welcome to take part.

The income section on the application is blank, where will the funding come from. You have applied to 3 Area Boards, and the total cost was shown as £13,500 on this app but yet on the Salisbury application it was £18.5k, why have the figures changed? Also, the population figures for Salisbury compared to Southern are much greater yet based on the percentages of population to amount requested, a more realistic figure for our community area would be £500. They have not applied to Salisbury City Council (SCC), why was that?

Answer: When I originally started this project, I applied to many places, some did not come back with any funding. To date I have put in £4k of my own money.

I feel that we all have a collective responsibility to stop harassment. At the SAB there was a member who was very homophobic, and it was a horrible experience. I will be approaching SCC and other local businesses for funding. This is for a five year party, but we are starting at year 0 with regards to funding.

·         The Chairman noted that the Board needed to consider how a grant to Pride would benefit its community area.

·         It would be good to see it running on a sustainable basis. What plans do you have?

Answer: We have to get the businesses behind us. We have run 5 fundraising events so far. We have the backing of Green King at The Bishops Mill. We are building that rapport with people.

·         It was difficult to see how it would become self-funding year after year.

·         Looking at the application I feel we as a Board should contribute, but not go above Salisbury’s input. It could easily be a huge event for Salisbury.

·         There would be a number of people in all of our villages that would be keen to attend and take part in this event.

Answer: There were still a lot of older people that hide their sexuality.

·         Happy to support this but not beyond the motion of £1000.

Decision

The Board awarded £1000 towards the Salisbury Pride UK 2020 Festival

With the condition that if the event did not take place the funding would be returned.

The Milford Preservation Group – Requested £1,000 towards the River Bourne Island project.

The river and the island was in both Salisbury and Laverstock.

Questions:

·         Have you spoken to the Riverbourne  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Future Dates:

2020:

12 March  - Alderbury

2 April – Our Community Matters Conference – Trafalgar School, Downton

7 May – Winterslow

10 September – venue TBC

2021:

28 January – Whiteparish

11 March – Coombe Bissett

The Chairman thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

The next meeting is scheduled for Thursday 12 March 2020, 7.00pm at Alderbury Village Hall.