Agenda item

To receive updates from the following partners:

a.    Wiltshire Police

b.    Fire and Rescue Service

c.    Health Services

d.    Schools updates

e.    Town and Parish Councils

Written updates were available in the agenda pack or supplements from Wiltshire Police, The Dorset and Wiltshire Fire Service, Healthwatch Wiltshire and the Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group.

In addition to the written updates, the following verbal updates were given by partners present:

·         Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner

Although not on the agenda, the Chairman invited the Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner, Jerry Herbert, to address the meeting. This was the first time that the Deputy PCC had attended the Devizes Area Board and he was very pleased to do so. Mr Herbert had been working as the Deputy PCC since 1 August 2018 and worked in the role for 2 days a week. The PCC, Angus Macpherson, wanted there to be more community engagement, therefore Mr Herbert was undertaking this as part of his role and was aiming to attend each of the 18 different Area Boards approximately twice a year. Mr Herbert was previously in the army and had worked for a major engineering company. He now undertook consulting work when not working as the Deputy PCC.

Knife crime had been in the news a lot recently and was considered a big problem. Thankfully, in Wiltshire it was not such a problem. Wiltshire being one of only four counties in the UK where knife crime had gone down last year. Wiltshire Police were engaged in Operation Spectre, whose aim was to get knifes off the streets.

Regarding funding, Mr Herbert stated that 60% of funding came from central government and 40% came from local taxation via the Police Precept of people’s Council Tax. Following a recent consultation, the Wiltshire Police precept would be going up. Wiltshire was the fourth lowest funded police force in the UK per head of population and faced unique challenges due to the geography of the county with a large area and a mix of rural and town populations. The rise in the precept would fund an extra 41 police officers next year. There would also be a focus on fraud and child sexual exploitation. Mr Herbert invited the meeting to let him know of any issues which he would try to address.

Cllr Anna Cuthbert stated that the PCC had been lobbying for funding and asked whether he had, had any success.  The Deputy PCC stated that he had met with the funding commissioner in November. The funding formula was to be revised as part of a current spending review. However, the spending review had been delayed due to Brexit. It was probable that the review would happen in the summer and the OPCC would be able to update on this later in the year.

·         Wiltshire Police

Following on from the Deputy PCC, Acting Inspector Pete Foster stated that funding for the police was a national issue. Updating on local crime, it was stated that burglaries in the Devizes area remained low in number. A person had been caught who was praying on elderly women, stealing their purses. They had been arrested and would be going to court in April. A male had been arrested for exposing himself in charity shops. One drug dealer had been arrested for selling class A drugs. There had been several arrests for drink and/or drug driving, as well as others for having no MOT or insurance. They were also working with the prison to reduce contraband.

A member of the audience asked whether the police or anyone at the meeting had noticed that there had been an increase in rough sleepers in Devizes recently. The police stated that they were unaware of that, although there was one male known to be rough sleeping who was being engaged by multiple services. Another member of the audience worked for Devizes Open Doors, which was an outreach service that amongst other things helped rough sleepers. Due to funding cuts they had lost one of their outreach workers and Wiltshire Council was urged to reinstate the funding.

In response to a question regarding whether the police could help to remove videos on social media platforms that showed people how to make knives and covert blades, it was stated that it was the platform providers responsibility to remove this type of content.

A member of the audience from Stanford Court thanked the police for their work in reducing anti-social behaviour in and around their car park. The situation had got much better thanks to the intervention, however it was now getting worse again. Acting Inspector Foster stated that he would feed this back to his team.