Agenda item

To note the attached written updates:

a)    Police – Neighbourhood Policing Teams

b)    Fire

c)     Wiltshire Council Items for Information

The Board will also receive any verbal updates from partners present, including:

·       Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) – Angus Macpherson

Note: Speakers are reminded that they each have a 3 minutes slot, unless they have previously discussed alternative arrangements with the Community Area Manager.

Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) - Angus Macpherson

The Police and Crime Commissioner, Angus Macpherson explained that the current consultation on the police and crime element of council tax for 2014/15, which had been running since 6 January 2014 would close at midnight tonight.

The Commissioner was considering an increase in the police and crime element of council tax of £3.15 a year for the average home (band D property). This would help reduce the impact of significant central government grant reductions on policing and crime services in Wiltshire and Swindon.

An average increase of £3.15 per household would provide the Commissioner with an additional £740,000 of local income for 2014-15.

Questions and comments were then taken, these included:

·         When the Salisbury custody suite is closed and you use the one in Melksham, why cant you get a temporary one up and running in Salisbury? Answer: There will be a purpose built custody suite in Salisbury in the future, however until that is built there will be an interim period where we must use the one at Melksham.

Inspector Noble – Temporary solutions for the 18 month period it was expected to take for the new suite to be built, had been explored, but were found to be not feasible due to cost and acceptability.

When prisoners are arrested, they can be processed using mobile technology, and then handed over to drivers to transport to Melksham in a custody vehicle. This would leave officers free to remain in their local area.

·         Will the local Neighbourhood Police Teams be maintained, and what has happened to the PCSO in Tisbury? Answer: Wiltshire is one of only a few counties in the country which has retained its Neighbourhood Police Teams. They will be staying. Inspector Alan Webb is in the process of recruiting to the vacant PCSO position in Tisbury.

·         You are investing in new IT equipment, but the rural areas have a very poor network, how will this be tackled? Answer: Cllr Scott – Cabinet member responsible for Broadband; Cllr Thomson had made a bid for funding to improve Broadband hotspots.

Angus – we are looking at how we can get Wifi into our police vehicles.

·         Do you feel the Community Speedwatch (CSW) re-launch was going well? Answer: The number of CSW teams has increased and was working well. The system can now detect when a person has had two letters and the NPT can be tasked around the data collected by the CSW teams.

·         In Mere we have a police station with two volunteers, as we do not have any plans at present for a campus, would the police station remain open? Answer: There are no plans in relation to changing anything in Mere.

Police - Inspector Andy Noble

The Board noted the written updates attached to the agenda, in addition Andy gave an update on forthcoming burglary tactics, further information would be reported back at the next Area Board meeting.

Additional funding recently acquired had been used to pay for additional night shift hours for Officers in Mere.

Two people which had been arrested and bailed by West Dorset Police had been found to have been active in East Knoyle area.

Fire

The Board noted the written update attached to the agenda.

Wiltshire Council Items for Information

The Board noted the Core Strategy written update attached to the agenda.

Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs)

Charles Smith reported that there had been a delay in having the SID moved to a new location.

Action: CAM to liaise with the Road Traffic Technician to move this forward.

Youth – Jaki Farrell, Integrated Youth Services Team Leader

Over the past few months, despite the horrific weather, young people had attended various sessions being run through the youth development centres in Mere, Tisbury & Wilton.   

The poor weather had proved a challenge for some of the conservation activities running, with the support of Seeds4Success however jobs in Chilmark and at Wardour Cemetery had recently been completed.

Young people had also been making bird tables and a small amount of stock was now available for sale – all proceeds are returned into the charity.  

The Youth Advisory Group (YAG) had been involved in encouraging and reviewing applications to the South West Wiltshire Youth Fund and this process had helped members look at the variety of opportunities available to all young people and identified gaps in existing provision.

A training and development residential for young people involved in YAG would be taking place over the weekend of 7-9^th March.

Wiltshire Council Integrated Youth Service was currently carrying out a review of positive leisure time activities for young people, this would ultimately mean a change in the way services for young people are delivered locally. There are 4 possible delivery models being suggested which would enable the required significant savings to be made, and there is presently a public consultation taking place on this.

We will be consulting with young people to find out their views and will  present the findings at the Area Board meeting in March. We would welcome feedback from local parish councils, community groups and local residents on the four proposals and are happy to discuss the options and how these may look locally, with you.

Jaki gave thanks to the local communities and the Area Board for their continued support with youth matters.