Agenda item

To receive any verbal updates from Partners and Community Groups present, including:

 

·         Police – Neighbourhood Teams

·         PCC

·         Fire & Rescue

·         Youth - LYN

 

To note the following written updates attached to the agenda:

 

a)    Police

b)    Fire & Rescue

c)    JSA

b) Wiltshire Council Items for Information

 

Current consultations can be found at: http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council-democracy-consultations

 

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 Neighbourhood Teams

In attendance was acting Sector Inspector for the West, James Williams.

 

In Wilton there has been some catapult damage and as a result there were currently targeted patrols.

 

The Teams continued to be committed to visibility.

 

The force supported the national campaign to tackle modern day Slavery, which affected migrant workers in rural locations. If you had any concerns, please contact us on 101 or 999 if you are immediately concerned.

 

We want to try and find ways to make the Police more approachable. If you can think of ways that we can then please let us know.

 

Comments and questions included:

 

·         Thank you from Mere for having two police in attendance at the carnival this year. Answer: They will also be at Tisbury Carnival

·         Hare coursing was prevalent here, are you targeting that? Answer: Yes it was a priority for West Wiltshire. In another area we started a Whatsapp group which went well and had 12 arrests from that. We need you to report incidents so that we can target other areas.

·         What about cuckooing, where young people are used to run the drugs around? Answer: We call them dangerous drug networks, we are trying to get a foothold in West Wiltshire. They go for vulnerable people, they take over their address and keep them for drug cohesion. We do target these if we hear about them, we get a target order on these addresses. The real problem comes when you have two gangs that try to take over an area at the same time. It is a constant battle. Unless we can stop people from becoming addicts, we will always have those that supply.

 

·         Do you still have enough funding and time to go in and do school visits? Answer: It depends on the age of the child as to who can go in and visit. The ones that go in to secondary schools are specially trained. The PCSOs can go into primary schools. With the current savings we have had to make we are doing the best we can for Wiltshire Police. This weekend, every team worked 4 hours late. That is the reality, it is a national issue.

 

·         Police always attend the CSG, the local PCSO is brilliant, and he liaises with the local Cllr.

 

The Board gave thanks to all of the Services that serve our community. Inspector Williams responded by adding that as a force, they thank the community for all of the support they have been given and to the visiting Officers.

 

PCC – Angus Macpherson

I am here to find out what you need, and have found out a lot from talking to the Neighbourhood Teams.

 

It has been challenging down here in the south and across the county following the incidents. I sent the Government a bill to cover the financial costs and that has been paid. We need to remember that Officers have put in a lot of additional hours and missed holidays.

 

We are the 42^nd worst funded force in the country, historic in part and I would wish the government to address this. We do need to speak to our representatives in central government as we need fairer funding for Wiltshire.

 

We get around £20 per household less here than in places like Gloucester. We do need to address some of the issues we have here. Wiltshire is a very safe place, but we ned to be aware of the modern-day dangers that we face.

 

Questions:

·         Will you be increasing the numbers of Specials? Answer: Yes we have spent a lot of money on Specials, we are up to something like 350 across the county.

·         In Salisbury you have 40 Specials helping out. We will be recruiting more regulars over the next few years also. Particular work they have done in backfilling the team.

 

·         In Wiltshire, you have said that you do not need to increase Police Officer  numbers, in other areas they have said they need more funding to increase their Forces. Answer: A lot of the work has been done by civilians, the actual number of Police Officers has fallen, but the number of employees has not, you do not require a warrant card for a lot of the work. We have less Officers and more civilian staff, and we are continuing to recruit. Numbers are increasing.

 

·         With regards to vulnerable people and slavery, I locally reported a person of eastern European origin who we felt may have been abused, and we were told that unless the person themselves approached them, they would not do anything. Answer: Vulnerability is high on the list of priorities. Please do report these incidents.

 

·         You are doing a couple of presentations about community engagement in other areas why can we not have one in this area? Answer: Not sure that this is something our office is running, it may be another office.

 

·         Is Neighbourhood Watch one of your priorities? Answer: I continue to support NHW, it is an independent charity which we support. I provide the community messaging service which is part of the NHW scheme.

 

·         We are in a very militarised area here could we draw on the military police to assist here? Answer: They are not set up as they were in the past. Their purpose is now set up for more specific roles in the military now, like the military assets in Wiltshire, rather than being in charge of military officer discipline.  We do work with them at times.

 

Fire & Rescue

Justin French was in attendance to highlight some points from the written report attached to the agenda, including business safety advice, Chinese lantern danger, Safe and Well visits and the recruitment of on call support officers.

 

Question

·         When you are recruiting are people aware of the level of traffic accidents you attend? Answer: We do attend many other incidents other than just fire. It is part of the recruitment to train Officers in all areas.

 

Local Youth Network (LYN)

Jaki Farrell and young people from the Young Leaders Programme were in attendance to give a presentation on some of the areas of their work with Seeds 4 Success.

 

Jaki was the Service Manager for this registered charity, which had been set up in 2012. Since that time the organisation had grown and developed youth work across South West Wiltshire.

 

There were five main themes to the work we deliver, and were an approved provider of positive activities for Wiltshire Council.

 

There were a range of weekly sessions, including:

 

·         Monday  - Health and wellbeing night, running football, basketball, skating and fitness on an alternating basis, to learn communication skills and improve fitness

 

·         Friday – In Mere, there was an open drop in session. To meet up and communicate with each other

 

·         Friday night – Have fun, with the hockey table and social gathering. 2 sessions, junior’s and the older group.

 

 

·         Thursday  - In Wilton – was project night – where people can build things

 

 

Leisure Credits was a scheme where groups of young people could take part in social action projects, to achieve leisure credits. Some of the work they had undertaken included building footpaths around the area, to improve access routes.

 

Some of the older members were able to carry out heavy lifting, and help teach the younger children how to use the equipment we use to improve the footpaths.

 

The Dew Pond Project came out of the NCS project, which was part of the Cranbourne Chase AONB.

 

National Citizen Service, was also run by Seeds 4 Success. This summer there were 13 young people taking part. Learning skills, including a first aid course, and level 2 food hygiene.

 

The young people had been able to raise a lot of money together to spend on leisure credits.

 

Seeds 4 Success ran a targeted support programme, working with people not in education or training. Providing one to one support, group work and training, CV assistance, and to try and find jobs, or college placements.

 

The Bridging project was run on Tuesday evenings. This was for young people with disabilities and special needs. Activities included cooking, sewing, and woodwork. We also take part I the leisure credit scheme.

 

A Youth Leader Project was on a Friday night, there was a junior section. A big part of what we do is to run our own youth workshop for Y4 to Y6s

 

The Junior club had done such a good job that we were oversubscribed and now have to have 2 sessions.

 

 

Questions and comments:

 

·         Phil Matthews, Wilton TC – I have known Jaki for many years, we should record our thanks, we are very grateful, you do a marvellous job, keep on doing it. Answer: If the children didn’t put in the effort we would not exist, it is a two-way thing.