Agenda item

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

·       Police – Neighbourhood Teams

·       Fire & Rescue

·       Community Engagement Manager

To note the following written updates attached to the agenda:

a) Police

b) Fire

c) Community Safety Group

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

To Board received verbal updates from Partners and Community Groups present, including:

Police – Neighbourhood Teams

Inspector Andy Fee – West Wiltshire Community Policing Team, drew attention to the written report.

At the last meeting the Board asked the Police to provide feedback on Community Speedwatch (CSW).

West Wilts were the pilot area to start working and integrating CSW. Over the past six months there had been 96 CSW patrols. The Community Support Officer was also starting to go out and provide support to the trained volunteers.

CSW had also been made a priority at the weekly Task Group meeting.

Andy noted that this was the busiest Community Policing Team in terms of demand, compared to north Wiltshire, with Trowbridge and Salisbury also taking a lot of work.

Question

·         When are the Community Task Group meetings? Answer: They are on a Wednesday at 11am at Trowbridge Police Station.

·         Have we got two more Rural Coordinators? Answer: Yes we have.

·         Do we have more Officers to go with them? Answer: You have Rich Salter, he is the Community Coordinator for Tisbury and Mere. Working tightly with Neil Turnbull and Pete Sparrow.

Andy encouraged people to register for Community Messaging and advised that the drop in sessions they held were important in hearing what the community area was saying.

·         What time are the shift changes, as the majority of speeding issue occur at rush hour in the morning? Answer:  Yes that is around our shift change time- I will take that back and see what I can do.

·         How do we get to meet the Officers for our area? Answer: Rich Salter is the person you need to email.

·         In Swallowcliffe, the group had found the device called the auto speewatch device, it takes pictures and stores information and costs £300, could we use that?  Answer: The PCC would have to endorse that device. It was not currently used in Wiltshire.

·         We need as a nation to look at the law and perhaps legalise marijuana. Answer: That is political matter. It is a public health issue, not for me or our Officers to comment on that. It is the law to possess and supply. We work with Public Health agencies.

There is a new campaign called ‘Stop Me’ which provides stickers for farm vehicles. These stickers are going out at the moment to farm owners to mark their vehicles with. If there are police behind a marked tractor then it will be stopped to check it is not stolen. All the PCSOs are getting out to the farmers in their patches. Andy would also bring a supply of stickers to the next Area Board.

Fire & Rescue

Richard Humphrey, District Commander for SWW was in attendance. An amended update was circulated at the meeting.

Report details showed some seasonal related items. On-call recruitment was ongoing.

The response figures showed that there were 6 occasions for Tisbury and 5 for Mere where they could not respond due to staff numbers being low for the On-call Fire Fighters. Richard urged people to go and spread the word for more On-call Officers.

There was to be a review of the Fire Service as a whole, and DWFS had been chosen as a pilot for that.

Station Manager Maggs covered the Wilton area.

Questions:

·         Do you have any ambition to have any training in our area, or what are your plans to make the On-call posts more interesting? Answer: Training is at Devizes, and usually takes around 5 weeks, either in stages or as a block. Younger people seem to move on more with their careers, however there is a constant need for more On-call Officers. It can be a challenge for smaller businesses to release staff.

During my career I have had more intervention in rescuing people from road traffic accidents than I do in fires. There are support schemes for Officers now, we do have counsellors that can go out.

The number of fires has decreased but we still have a similar number of calls of a different variety. Recruitment is one thing but retention is another.

Community Engagement Manager

Karen Linaker gave an update.

Annual General Meeting of the Neighbourhood Watch

Mike Davidson had submitted his AGM report which is attached to these minutes.

Questions

·         Why was Tisbury the centre of the universe, why can’t all of that happen in Mere. You don’t need the hub you could come and use our sports facilities. The CEM was invited to attend the next Town Council meeting to take these points forward.

·         Cllr Church noted that although Wilton was her patch, Tisbury was the centre of the South West Wiltshire Area Board and had a campus there. There were ways that outreach work could be carried out to include the areas further afield.

·         Cllr Wayman added that a lot of the villages organise their own events, and anyone was able to attend any of these things. Tisbury had had nothing for many years.

·         How have the meetings with the Police been going? Answer: Karen would find out and feedback.

·         Cllr Bucknell noted that she had just taken over the Cabinet role that included campuses. Her area was up north of Wiltshire where they have two towns. Campuses cost quite a lot of money to run so they have to have a lot going on there to pay for the costs.

There were lots of things being put on, it was not just WC so need to encourage other providers to come and put on activities. I am aware of the feelings of discontent in the areas that do not have a campus. I will be looking at evening out some of the equalities.

·         There were 38 parishes in the SWW community area. Tisbury was lucky it had the Nadder Centre. Tisbus was based up at the campus, if they have drivers part of their role is to bus people in from the other parishes.

·         Our Youth programme run by Jakki does see young people being brought to Mere for activities.

·         Transport can be an issue which holds us back from accessing what is going on in our parishes.