Agenda and minutes

Councillor Lawrie Stratford was elected to Chairman for the current Council year.

Councillor Carol Viney was elected to Deputy Chairman for the current Council year.

Councillor Sandy Lovatt attended in place of Councillor Stewart Lilly.

Councillor Mrs J. Heathcoat declared two personal interests at Agenda Item 4:

• in relation to Agenda Item 11 on the grounds that she sits on the Committee for Banbury Library and the Mill Arts Centre;
• in relation to Agenda Item 7 on the grounds that she is a Thames Valley Police Authority Member until 27 May 2010.

Councillor Patrick Greene declared a personal interest at Agenda Item 4 in relation to Agenda Item 7 on the grounds that he sits on the Local Area Policing Board.

Councillor Susanna Pressel declared a personal interest at Agenda Item 4 in relation to Agenda Item 7 on the grounds that she sits on the Local Area Policing Board.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2010 (SSC5) and any matters arising on them.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 1 February 2010 were approved and signed.

Matters Arising

Minute 44/10 – Cogges Manor Farm Museum – Review of Progress Towards Trust Status – the Committee noted that the Trust had now been set up and that it would receive an update at its July meeting.

10:15

Published by Thames Valley Police Authority and Thames Valley Police, the Delivery Plan outlines the vision for the Force in the current year. The Delivery Plan 2010-2011 is attached (SSC7), and will be supported by the third year of the Strategic Plan 2008-2011 which is due to be published in June. The Delivery Plan outlines the seven strategic objectives, as well as the actions to be undertaken in the coming year to achieve these objectives, and the targets against which performance will be measured.

The presentation from the Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police will cover the strategic plan, with a focus on delivery in 2010-11. All areas within the strategic plan will be covered, including performance in priority crime and other measures such as confidence and satisfaction. The presentation will highlight some key processes that are underway to improve performance and productivity.

Chief Constable Sara Thornton QPM, Chief Superintendent Brendan O’Dowda and Inspector Andy Talbot (Development and Change Manager) (Thames Valley Police) will attend for this item.

The Committee is invited to question the Chief Constable and her colleagues regarding the Plan.

Published by Thames Valley Police Authority (TVPA) and Thames Valley Police (TVP), the Delivery Plan 2010 - 2011 (SSC7) outlines the vision for the Force in the current year. This would be supported by the third year of the Strategic Plan 2008-2011 which was due to be published in June. The Delivery Plan outlines the seven strategic objectives, as well as the actions to be undertaken in the coming year to achieve these objectives, and the targets against which performance will be measured.

Chief Constable Sara Thornton QPM, Chief Superintendent Brendan O’Dowda and Inspector Andy Talbot (Development and Change Manager) attended for this item in order to answer the Committee’s questions.

The Chief Constable gave a presentation on the Strategy for Policing in the Thames Valley 2010 – 11, a copy of which is attached to the signed Minutes.  

All areas within the strategic plan were covered, including performance in priority crime and other measures such as confidence and satisfaction. The presentation also highlighted key processes that were underway to improve performance and productivity.

Key points from the presentation are listed below:

• the first four priorities were about operational policing and priorities 5 – 7 were about operational support work;
• key themes in the Plan were public confidence in neighbourhood policing, reducing crime and disorder, protective services and use of resources.

Public Confidence

In terms of public confidence, the last government had set this objective (NI 21 - The police and local council are dealing with the anti-social behaviour and crime issues that matter in this area). This relied on joint work between the police and the local authority, both county and district.

·        Home Office Public Confidence Target: 59.2% by 2012

Thames Valley Police had been above the trajectory set by the government until it had received the data from the government for the last quarter which had caused it to dip down. However, the British Crime Survey (BCS) sample had only used a random sample of 250 people.

·        TVPA public confidence target: 68% by 2011

The Police Authority had also asked this question by telephone survey and had used a much larger sample size, which had given a more positive result and had enabled officers to drill down to county and district level. Their results had not shown a dip in the last quarter and therefore it was possible that the BCS data had been rogue data.

·        Place Survey

The Place Survey (how the Council measures NI21) had given a different set of results.

·        Public Perceptions of the Police

TVP was doing a lot of good work on public confidence, for example, through the Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAGs) and through county wide work.

However, there was still a massive communication challenge as the public still did not appear to know what the police were doing. In response to the question ‘How informed, if at all, do you feel about the service provided by your local area?’ the local police has received the lowest score in terms of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56/10

12:00

Contact Officer: Richard Webb, Acting Head of Community Safety and Trading Standards, tel: (01865) 815791

The following people will present on fear of crime in this order:

• Jo Cookes, Deputy Head of Community Safety(Government Office for the South East) to give the public perception survey results broken down across the South East Region by District.

• Bill Oddy, Head of Community Services (West Oxfordshire District Council)and Oxfordshire Lead on Public Confidence and Supt Amanda Pearson, Local Police Area Commander for OxfordCity and TVPlead on Public Confidence to present on the targets set for Oxfordshire in relation to National Indicator NI 21 (public perception that the police and local councils respond satisfactorily to local concerns around crime and disorder), the police “Confidence” indicator and the plans to deliver the targets.

A briefing on Public Confidence in Oxfordshire is attached (SSC8), which covers the work of the Oxfordshire Safer Communities Partnership (OSCP) during the past year. The paper also outlines the Safe & Confident Communities Project that will be implemented during the next six months.

Mr Oddy will take the Committee through the paper. Mr Bowden, the Oxfordshire Safe & Confident Communities Project Manager, will then give a short presentation on the Project.

• Dan Bowden, Senior Performance Officer, Oxfordshire Basic Command Unit (Thames Valley Police) to provide the detailed results for Oxfordshire (broken down by Districts) in terms of fear of crime and actual crime and to show how Oxfordshire compares with the rest of the Thames Valley.

• Katie Pritchett, Corporate Consultation Officer (Oxfordshire County Council) to present the outcomes of in-depth research exploring residents' views of crime and anti-social behaviour.
• James Clark, Head of Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs (Oxfordshire County Council)to present on what his team can do and is planning to do to help tackle fear of crime in Oxfordshire.

Richard Webb, Acting Head of Community Safety and Trading Standards (Oxfordshire County Council) and Ruth Whyte, Manager – Safer Communities Unit (Oxfordshire County Council) to answer any general/specific questions arising.

The Committee is invited to conduct a question and answer session in relation to this area.

2.30 – 3.00 SANDWICH LUNCH

A number of officers attended for this agenda item as detailed in this Minute and were accompanied by Mr Richard Webb, Acting Head of Community Safety and Trading Standards (Oxfordshire County Council) and Ms Ruth Whyte, Manager of the Safer Communities Unit (Oxfordshire County Council).

A briefing on public confidence was before the Committee (SSC8) which covered the work of the Oxfordshire Safer Communities Partnership (OSCP) during the past year. The paper also outlined the Safe & Confident Communities Project that would be implemented during the next six months.

The Committee also had before it the Oxfordshire Voice 2009 Crime and Antisocial Behaviour Summary Report and report of the In depth exercise 2009 which had been circulated separately prior to the meeting.

Ms Jo Cookes, Deputy Head of Community Safety (Government Office for the South East) informed the Committee that she was responsible for delivering on the reduction of crime and antisocial behaviour and implementing government policy in the South East region. Ms Cookes then presented on the public perception survey results broken down across the South East Region by District.

The key points from her presentation were that:

• the South East was a safe place to live, with low levels of violence. It was however, a diverse region, with pockets of affluence and pockets of high rates of crime;
• Oxfordshire compared fairly well to the rest of the region in terms of perceptions of antisocial behaviour, with an above average positive rating. However, it could look to improve further in this respect;
• the Home Office had analysed NI21 data (public confidence that the Police and Local Authorities are dealing with antisocial behaviour and crime issues that matter to the public) and there were slightly higher levels of confidence in the county (27%) than the country average (26.4%). Oxfordshire had the second highest county score in this respect, with Surrey having the highest score. Surrey had implemented a number of initiatives in this respect, which were worthy of investigation;
• Factors such as whether the public believed that the police were treating people fairly and with respect impacted on public confidence levels;
• The age of respondents appeared to have an impact on their confidence levels, as did contact with the police (eg seeing PCSOs patrolling the streets);
• The highest scores in relation to public confidence were in the low 30s (%), which was not a high level of confidence, but it was important to look at the methodology for measuring public confidence. The British Crime Survey (BCS)  had shown much higher levels of public confidence (in the 50s and 60%s). However, the NI21 measure was consistent and was therefore still valid in terms of comparisons with the rest of the country and over time;
• Research had been undertaken nationally into what drives public perceptions;
• overall and in each district, Oxfordshire was performing mid range across all of the perception and confidence indicators in relation to its family group; and
• officers could look at outliers in the family group that were  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57/10

3:00

Contact Officer: Colin Thomas, Assistant Chief Fire Officer and Head of Service Support, Tel: (01865) 855206

The Assistant Chief Fire Officer and Head of Service Support will provide an update and answer the Committee’s questions.

The Committee had before it a written update on progress of the Fire Service Command and Control Room (FiReControl and FireLink Projects) (SSC9).

Mr Colin Thomas, Assistant Chief Fire Officer and Head of Service Support updated the Committee in addition to report SSC9 as follows:

• OFRS had responded to the select committee and a particular paragraph provided by OFRS had been mentioned in the review;
• the select committee had felt that it was important to continue with the FireControl Project, as to abandon it would have financial consequences and there were no credible alternative plans in place;
• in terms of data migration, as part of the planning review CLG had tasked all FRAs with reviewing their migration planning and developing the supporting business processes. The task had been issued in April and CLG had given a target date of 2 June 2010 to complete the actions, which was unachievable with OFRS’s current workload. OFRS took data migration very seriously and was not willing to rush this. OFRS hoped to put a revised timeline in place in June or July for individual bits of data;
• in terms of mobile data terminals (MDTs), OFRS was intentionally rolling them out in a progressive, staged manner. More data would be added to the MDTs later in the year and officers would then decide what should be done should the data not be available at any point. However, more than one engine was usually despatched to a property fire.

Mr Thomas also showed a number of slides to the Committee which supplemented the written update.

3:10

Contact Officers: Richard Webb, Acting Head of Community Safety and Trading Standards, Tel: (01865) 815791, Dr Imran Alvi, Assistant Corporate Performance and Review Manager, Tel: (01865) 810822

[Lead Member Review Group comprises Councillors Lawrie Stratford, Bill Service, John Goddard and John Sanders]

The Committee is invited to receive a progress update from the Lead Member Review Group.

[Lead Member Review Group comprises Councillors Lawrie Stratford, Bill Service, John Goddard and John Sanders]

Councillor Stratford reported as follows:

• the Lead Member Review Group wished to gain an understanding of any gaps in the provision of Debt Advice across the County, the quality of debt advice provided, who was providing it and how the quality of that advice was being maintained;
• the Group had requested some information from the District Councils;
• the Group was going to hold a series of interviews with people;
• the Group aims to complete its review by September, subject to obtaining information from partner bodies.

3:20

Contact Officer: Richard Munro, Head of Community Services, Tel: (01865) 323579

To receive a verbal update on plans for Banbury Library and the Mill Arts Centre.

Mr Munro will be accompanied by Ms Caroline J. Taylor (County Librarian) and Mr Martyn Brown (County Heritage and Arts Officer).

The Committee is invited to receive the update and to conduct a question and answer session.

Mr Richard Munro (Head of Community Services), together with Mr Martyn Brown (County Heritage and Arts Officer) and the Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities attended for this item in order to update the Committee on plans for Banbury Library and the Mill Arts Centre.

Mr Munro reported as follows:

• although Banbury Library was very popular and heavily used, the building was a difficult design and no longer in the right location;
• the Mill Arts Centre was also a very popular and heavily used facility. However, the building was very cramped and parts of it were difficult to access and manage;
• the Council’s preferred option was to have a development on the site next to where the Mill Arts Centre was situated;
• £51/2m had been identified form the County Council’s capital programme for this project as it was a critical capital project for the county;
• the District Council had just replaced the leisure centre on the site;
• Spiceball Park was prone to flooding from time to time and officers would ensure that those parts of the Mill that were to remain would be made more resilient to flooding;
• the project to develop the cultural quarter as a whole was a three way partnership. There were economies in being able to provide an integrated management approach;
• the Council had made very good progress in the last year in developing the vision for the site as a whole and the development would be unique and unique to Banbury;
• the expectation was that by 2012 construction would be taking place on site and that it would be completed by 2014.

The Committee thanked Mr Munro for his oral update, noted the method of governance and AGREED to request that a detailed written report be brought to Committee in future, including information on governance, the facilities to be provided and a serious assessment of the flooding risk and mitigation for this.

The Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities undertook to ensure that a report was provided to scrutiny at the appropriate time. It was suggested that it might be appropriate to consider this report when consultation was taking place with Banbury residents.

All members of the Committee were asked to liaise with Councillor Stratford regarding what information they wished to be provided in the report, who would then provide this information to the Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities.

3:40

Contact Officer: Dr Imran Alvi, Assistant Corporate Performance and Review Manager, Tel: (01865) 810822

To update the attached timeline (SSC12).

The Committee noted the following information:

·        that the select committee into community pride would be the substantive item at its July meeting;

·        that members would also be asked to discuss what areas they would like to address in scrutinising crime and disorder at their July meeting;

·        that a report on progress in relation to the operation of Birmingham City Council’s Illegal Money Lending Team in Oxfordshire would be provided to its September meeting;

·        that suggestions for future work items should be sent to Councillor Stratford and Dr Alvi.

Members of the Committee were reminded that any suggestions should be related to the Council’s priorities and the remit of this Committee, although suggestions which cut across more than one scrutiny committee could also be put forward for consideration.

Ms Coldwell undertook to circulate a record of the scrutiny activities (including reviews) undertaken by this Committee over the past 2 – 3 years and scrutiny activities undertaken by other Committees during that time period which now fell under the remit of this Committee, to all members of the Committee.

Dr Alvi undertook to provide:

• a note to the Committee to let Members know when performance information is submitted to the Cabinet (eg the balanced scorecard);

• tracking information on past scrutiny reviews undertaken by this Committee to all members of the Committee.

Any members of the Committee that wished to visit the County’s Emergency Planning Unit at Woodeaton Manor and/or Trading Standards at Osney Mead were asked to contact the Director for Community Safety.

3:50

The Committee is asked note any items of interest on the current version of the Forward Plan which covers the time period May to August 2010.

No items had been identified for consideration.

3:55

Report back on advice given by this Committee to the Cabinet, full Council, other scrutiny committees, relevant strategic partnership bodies and other organisations where appropriate.

·   Service and Resource Planning 2010/11 – 2014/15

This Committee had agreed to advise the Cabinet via the Strategy & Partnerships Scrutiny Committee, that whilst recognising that difficult choices had to be made, it supported the proposals for savings as listed within the relevant Directorate Efficiency Strategies.

Councillor Mitchell’s response is given below:

The Cabinet thanks the Safer & Stronger Communities Scrutiny Committee for their support for budget savings which they have largely incorporated into the budget and which has now been agreed by the Council.

·        Integrated Risk Management Action Plan

This Committee had received a presentation and conducted a question and answer session in relation to proposal (a) ofthe Draft Fire Authority Integrated Risk Management Action Plan 2010/11 (Day Crewing Review at Abingdon and Didcot Fire Stations) and had agreed the following:

This Committee:

·        recognises the detailed work that has already been carried out to prepare the proposal, with particular regard to the close working with staff and the Fire Brigades’ Union;

·        agrees that the proposal will provide a more robust means of delivering fire service cover across the whole of the county;

·        fully supports the proposal and would welcome its implementation next year.

On 16 March the Cabinet agreed:

(a)               to approve all seven of the proposed projects for inclusion in the IRMP action plan 2010/11;

(b)     in light of the concerns expressed through the extensive internal and external consultation, to instruct the Chief Fire Officer to mitigate as far as practicable concerns raised when considering any future duty system;

(c)      in recognising the public concern around the potential impact of project one on attendance times to incidents during specific short periods, to instruct the Chief Fire Officer to report to the full Cabinet, the Cabinet Member for Safer and Stronger Communities and the related Scrutiny Committee on a four monthly basis in the first twelve months after implementation.  This report to also include details of the beneficial elements to RDS stations from the staff redeployment of the four Watch Managers; and

(d)       to instruct the Chief Fire Officer to provide performance data relating to the implementation of project one to the South and Vale of  White Horse District Councils and Abingdon and Didcot Town Councils.

·        Service and Resource Planning 2010/11 – 2014/15

The Committee noted Councillor Mitchell’s response to its budget advice as listed on the face of the agenda.

• Integrated Risk Management Action Plan

The Committee noted the Cabinet’s response to the Draft Integrated Risk Management Action Plan 2010/11 as listed on the face of the agenda.

The Deputy Chief Fire Officer reported that several themes had arisen from the consultation on proposal (a) Day Crewing Review at Abingdon and Didcot Fire Stations including:

• Absolute acceptance that it was a very positive project.
• Real public concern over the potential reduction in attendance times.
• Concerns regarding the total reliance on Retained fire fighters at the two stations.
• Concerns about the training needs of the Retained fire firefighters.
• Concerns about the removal of the fire engine from Rewley Road at            weekends to cover Abingdon and Didcot.
  
  

The Committee noted that the Cabinet Member for Safer & Stronger Communities would report back to Scrutiny once the new shift pattern had been implemented as it appeared that all of the issues raised through the public consultation process could be mitigated by introducing a new shift pattern.

·        Information Share

The Director for Community Safety & Shared Services and Chief Fire Officergave a verbal update on key issues as listed below:

·        OFRS had carried out a very detailed action plan following the high rise incident in Hertfordshire. However, properties in Oxfordshire were not of a similar construction;

·        OFRS had been reaccredited for the Customer Excellence Award and was the only Brigade in the country (out of 46 Brigades) to have received it;

·        The Gypsy & Traveller Service was the only one in the country to have received the award.

The Committee noted the Director for Community Safety & Shared Services and Chief Fire Officer’s imminent retirement, thanked him for his sterling work over the years - including his fantastic communication and people skills - commenting that he had been a valued and helpful officer who would be greatly missed, wished him a happy retirement and noted that he would stay in post until the new post holder had been appointed (June or September depending on whether an internal or external candidate was appointed).

·        Update on actions arising from the HSE Inspection of Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service

The Committee had before it an update on actions arising from the Health and Safety Executive Inspection of Oxfordshire Fire & Rescue Service (SSC14).

The Director for Community Safety & Shared Services and Chief Fire Officer reported as follows:

·        OFRS had received 18 recommendations for improvement as set out in report SSC14. The Inspectors had felt that OFRS had not paid enough attention to developing an overall strategic Health & Safety Plan for the Service. An overall Health & Safety Strategy for the County Council was in place, but this needed to be refocused, which would take a couple of months. However, no issues had been raised that OFRS were not already aware of;

·        OFRS was the only Brigade that received health and safety support from Shared Services and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63/10