Agenda item

The Chairman introduced the following speakers who each gave a presentation on a community safety initiative to the room, followed by an opportunity for questions.

Inspector David McMullin – Wiltshire Police

The Salisbury and surrounding rural areas were doing well, with a reduction to crime figures over the past several years. Wiltshire was now ranked as one of the safest counties to live in.

Several community safety initiatives were already in operation or were due to be trialled in the community area, these included:

• Neighbourhood Watch
• Community Speed Watch
• Farm Watch
• Street Watch

Street Watch was an initiative which was currently in operation in Salisbury and has proved to be working well. The Police aimed to trial this scheme in the Southern Wiltshire community area and were keen to work with the parish and residents of Downton to establish whether the scheme could be developed there.

This is a scheme where residents in high-vis jackets walk around the community, challenge inappropriate behaviour and report back to the police. For more info see the official Street Watch website: http://www.street-watch.org.uk/ If you are interested in setting up a scheme you should talk to your NPT. Inspector McMullin added that this was a scheme which did work and could bring huge benefits to the community.

Question:

Is it wise to ask people to go out and patrol their own area, as some members of a CSW team had received abuse and had felt unsafe as a result.

Answer: The whole ethos is that it is local people looking after their own area, it might not be as effective for people to do it in other areas. Sergeant Dean Garvin added that he would follow up any reported incidents of abuse to CSW or Street Watch volunteers and contact the culprit and their employer to discuss the issue.

Questions:

A local resident had previously lived in France, where any issues of bad behaviour were reported to the mayor in the village, could the same system work here with incidents being reported to the parishes to raise with the police.

Answer: As long as the incident is reported it doesn’t really matter who reports it. However, the idea of having a Community Safety rep on each parish council is important and would improve liaison between parish councils’ and community safety organisations.

Elizabeth Ngero – Community Speed Watch Administrator introduced Neil Owens, a member of the Ford CSW group, who gave an overview of how the group became involved in the scheme.

• Neil had attended an Area Board to ask about CSW after he was concerned about the speeding vehicles passing through the village, causing a danger for his children.
• Subsequently he completed the online form on the issue system to have the metro count installed to test the speed of vehicles as they pass through.
• The resulting data proved that there was a speeding issue.
• The road was approved for the CSW scheme and was then visited by a CSW officer, volunteers were found locally and training arranged.
• A venue was found and paid for so that the training could take place locally.
• Once trained 6 volunteers would then go out in groups of two for ½ to 1 hour at a time between 8 – 9am, as the village seemed to be used as a rat run during the  rush hour period. 250 vehicles could be recorded in one hour.
• The Ford CSW group had been out 24 times over the past 8 months.
• The equipment they used was shared with Alderbury, so each group would have the equipment for a fortnightly period at a time, on the basis of working two weeks on then having two weeks off.
• Approximately 25 cars out of 250 will drive past over 36mph
• The fastest recorded was 62mph whilst having children in the car and overtaking another vehicle.
• Prior to CSW the police would visit with the mobile speed camera and unfortunately would erect it in the wrong place. Now they visit more frequently and are in a better position which brings a better result.
• Long term impacts depend on a continuous effort from the volunteers to keep up the speed checks.
• CSW acts as a deterrent, the volunteers are doing it for the community and their children.
• Neil had since become more involved with the parish council, as they hold a parish traffic meeting which he is involved in.

Question:

In Alderbury two members of the CSW group had gone out for an hour earlier in the day, they had found it difficult to take down all of the details with just two volunteers.

Answer: It can be difficult to get all of the details down when working in groups of two, it just depends on how busy you are. Working in larger groups of 3 may make things easier or in some areas they use a Dictaphone to record the information, which is typed up after the session.

Elizabeth added that when the email goes out to inform the group that they have been successful for the CSW scheme, it does advise that they should contact their parish/town council as it is important to try and make use of what recourses are already in place.

The Chairman agreed that the parish had a pivotal role to play.

John Devlin – Consumer Protection Manager – South East

Outline the four areas of his work, these were:

• Sale of age restricted products – alcohol was an area where his team had joint responsibility with the police and environmental services.

• Lorry Watch - This is a Trading Standards initiative. Local residents monitor and record HGVs using weight-restricted roads. The scheme is currently being piloted but communities can find out more about getting involved by speaking to Simon King (simon.king@wiltshire.gov.uk).

·         Door Step Selling – People who do business on a doorstep who are not from a reputable company, could also be involved with distraction burglaries, this can result in elderly or vulnerable people being targeted. Trading Standards and the police had recently produced a DVD explaining what precautions can be taken http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/communityandliving/communitysafety2/crimereduction.htm

·         Talks can also be given to local community groups and in some instances a ‘No cold calling zone’ can be implemented as it has in Landford.

• Dog Legislation – Dangerous dogs are a shared responsibility with the police, when incidents occur such as dog on dog attacks or dog on wildlife attacks. The dog fouling policy is currently undergoing harmonisation, but signs can be erected to prevent issues, but if this does not stop issue then a penalty can also be issued, however this is difficult to enforce.

Questions:

Congratulations were given from a member of the Milford Lorry Watch scheme, as over past two days they had submitted two reports and had found trading standards to have acted very quickly on the matter.

Between Downton and Salisbury along the A36 there were a number of lanes with weight restrictions, however lorries are going down weight restricted roads to access business units which is causing problems.

It seems like a waste of resources to have two groups of volunteers carrying out lorry watch and CSW, it would make more sense to have one larger group of people who could go out and report on both issues.

Action: Tom Bray to look at the development of this idea.

Mike Franklin – Partnership and Community Engagement Manager for Wiltshire Fire Authority

There were three main areas of work used by the fire service, these were:

• Response
• Protection
• Prevention

Response – this community area was served by the main station at Salisbury but would be backed up by units from Fordingbridge and other areas.

Protection – The main thinking is to try and reduce the amount of accidental fires and road traffic accidents. The fire service try to do this by engaging with vulnerable groups, as one statistic shows that if you are over 50 you are three times more likely to die in a fire than those under 50.

Prevention – The fire service employs two educationalists to engage with schools at key stage 1 level. Over the past two years the fire service had engaged 321 young people for this community area.

Martin Jones – Wiltshire Fire Authority

Work included reducing incidents, this could be achieved by educating young people through a youth development course called Salamanda, which received funding from the Southern Wiltshire Area Board recently. This was a 5 day initiative based at Salisbury fire station and could be attended by young people from across southern Wiltshire.

Another initiative was called ‘Safe drive, stay alive’ the aim of this campaign is to reach new and pre-drivers in an emotive and hard-hitting way, influencing behaviour and attitude on the roads. In 2007 more than 60 people died on the roads of Wiltshire, with 1 in 3 aged 25 and under. Road crashes are the biggest killer of 15 – 24 year olds.

A thatch information pack was also available upon request, by contacting Martin at: martyn.jones@wiltsfire.gov.uk

Pippa McVeigh – Public Protection Manager Wiltshire Council

Part of Pippa’s team included Kelly Fry – Community Safety Officer, designated for the south of Wiltshire and Aileen Fenlon – Anti Social Behaviour Reduction Officer. Whilst the ASB Officers worked on very specific cases, the community safety officer looked at community solutions and engagement there were also officers who worked on domestic abuse issues.

The team works closely with Trading Standards, Environmental Services, Police, Voluntary Sector and the neighbourhoods and communities involved. Officers in the team are alerted to a problem in a number of ways, one of these is the Issue System. Depending on the nature of a problem, officers will aim to use the best available tools and resources to attain the best result.

Pippa circulated a case study (attached) which reflects a real life situation in the community area which shows how the team tackle issues working with the community.