Agenda item

To receive the following announcements through the Chairman (written briefing notes are available in the full agenda pack, or online):

·         Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner - Priorities and precept proposals.

·         CCG – Maternity Services - a consultation on changes to Maternity Services is underway, ending on 24 February 2019. Go to www.transformingmaternity.org.uk for details and response forms.

·         Polling District and Polling Place Review – to ensure that all electors have reasonably practicable facilities for voting.

The Chairman referred the meeting to the written reports contained in the agenda pack regarding:

·         Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner – Priorities and precept proposals.

A video from the OPCC was shown to the meeting explaining the reasoning behind proposed increases to the PCC precept. This would mean that for an average household the precept would increase by around £2.00 per month. The extra funds raised were to be spent on increasing community policing and tackling cyber-crime. The consultation deadline was midday on 31 January 2019.

The Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, Jerry Herbert then invited questions. In response to questions it was stated that the PCC Angus Macpherson was not to his knowledge retiring. The PCC had reserves of around £13 million. Their costs ran to around £110 million per year. The reserves had been depleted by approximately £1 million per year for the last three years. By raising the precept it was hoped that they would not need to use reserves in the coming year. If the precept was increased the PCC planned to employ 41 new police officers and a number of further police staff. The vast majority of the new officers would contribute to community policing. In addition staff would be recruited to two cyber-crime teams, one focusing on child sexual exploitation and one focusing on fraud. There were no problems recruiting new police officers. As a result of a recruitment drive last year they believed they had identified people to fulfil the proposed new roles and there was in fact a waiting list to become a police officer. Training for these new police officers involved an intensive 12 week programme followed by a period of time on patrol with a tutor.

Not all funds had yet been recouped to cover the cost of the Salisbury and Amesbury major incident last year. They had received £9.1 million so far, with approximately £1 million still outstanding. This was mainly to cover overtime bills from other police forces and they were still waiting for some of these bills to come in. Once received they would be passed to Government for payment.

The Deputy PCC stated that they could not commit to officer numbers being increased every year. They had adjusted the balance of policing around the county to match evolving crime patterns and types, for example by replacing some police officers with police staff in some places. The Chief Constable advised what he thinks is needed to meet requirements. They were proposing to raise the precept by the maximum allowed by Government.

·         CCG – Maternity Services - a consultation on changes to Maternity  Services was underway, ending on 24 February 2019. Go to www.transformingmaternity.org.uk for details and response forms.

·         Polling District and Polling Place Review

To ensure that all electors have reasonably practicable facilities for voting.

·         Consultation on Special Schools

Wiltshire Council was asking for people’s views on proposals to expand its successful model of providing children’s centre services in local community venues. The consultation was available at http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council-democracy-consultations  and would run from 23 January until 20 March 2019 with a report due to go to cabinet later in the spring.