Agenda item

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

·         Police – Neighbourhood Teams

·         Fire & Rescue

To note the following written updates and information attached to the agenda:

a)    Police

b)    Fire

c)    Wiltshire Council Items for Information – Electoral Review & Children’s Centres

d)    Clinical Commissioning Group

e)    Healthwatch Wiltshire

f)     To note the information on current consultations, to take part and for further information, visit the consultation portal:   http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/council/consultations.htm

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

Decision

The Board noted the written papers attached to the agenda and the verbal updates from partners present.

Police – Neighbourhood Teams - Inspector Pete Sparrow

In addition to the written report included in the agenda pack, he gave an update which included the following points:

·       The Inspector for the West has not been able to attend. His update would be in the minutes.

·       There had been a national increase in knife crime, however a very small number of incidents could influence those figures.

·       County Lines – The key message was to look out for your children, if they were showing signs of having some wealth, like new trainers or phones and you had not bought them, then it was likely that they were getting those items from other means. The drugs sellers recruit our local youths to do the running. They can make a lot of money running for the dealers. This could then lead on to drugs and knife crime. Please look out for this in the early stages. If you see signs that don’t make sense then challenge.

·       Our Special constabulary had already provided over 8100 hours of free service in the first 3 months of the year, just in the Salisbury area.

·       Wilton area – crime was still very low, with no particular spikes or trends in any areas.

·       We are starting to see a rise in outbuilding thefts and lead thefts. The advice it to record your serial numbers so you have a chance of identifying items after they are stolen, and to make your items easily to identify by painting them with bright or distinctive marks.

·       A decision had been taken to split the area into two sections. Pete would take command of the Salisbury end and a new inspector would be coming in for the Amesbury section.

Questions and comments:

·       Cllr Deane - You mention boundary changes, why are the police not amalgamating the police for the south west area, to cover our area? Answer: The Inspector going to Amesbury was coming from another area. We want to keep the Officers on the ground. The decision was that Mere and Tisbury should stay under Warminster for now.

·       We saw a picture of you with an award, of a skateboard. What was the award for? Answer: In November we ran a month of hairy officers, where we grew our facial hair for the Movember Charity campaign, to raise awareness and money for Men’s health charities. Our force came first and raised £xxx.

·       We never see a policeman walking in Tisbury, there are less than ever. Answer: I can give some context, my area is Salisbury, Wilton and Alderbury. At times you only have 3 Police Officers on duty, and they have to be deployed where the crime is, fortunately Tisbury is a low crime area. Patrols are put in place when crimes are happening. They have a large area to cover.

·       Would this change once the PCC had applied the money to recruit the additional 40 Officers? Answer: Absolutely, once they are trained up they would be deployed out on patrols.

·       If we see a problem, we call 101, but that does not always result in action. It would be nice to see a policeman from the Tisbury Area at one of these meetings. Answer: They come every other as they alternate with cover from the Salisbury area. There was an Officer which covered Tisbury at the last Area Board meeting.