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ITEM CM5
COMMUNITY
SAFETY SCRUTINY committee
MINUTES of the meeting held on 5 February 2007 commencing
at 10.00 am and finishing at 12:30 pm.
Present:
Voting Members: Councillor John Farrow - in
the chair
Councillor M. Altaf-Khan Councillor Marilyn
Badcock
Councillor Liz Brighouse (in place of Councillor Patrick Cartledge)
Councillor Ian
Hudspeth
Councillor Lesley
Legge
Councillor
Charles Mathew
Councillor
Rodney Rose
Councillor
Olive McIntosh-Stedman
Councillor
Carol Viney
By Invitation: Cabinet Member
for Community Safety: Councillor Ray Jelf.
Acting Chief
Constable Sara Thornton and Chief Superintendent Shaun Morley (Thames Valley
Police).
Officers:
Whole
of meeting: K. Coldwell and J.
Dean (Chief Executive’s Office).
Director for
Community Safety and Chief Fire Officer.
Part
of meeting: C. Mitchell
(Resources) (Agenda Item 7);
S.
Belcher (Community Safety) (Agenda Item 9).
The Scrutiny
Committee considered the matters, reports and recommendations contained or
referred to in the agenda for the meeting , together with a schedule of addenda
tabled at the meeting and agreed as set out below. Copies of the agenda, reports and schedule
are attached to the signed Minutes.
1/07
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND
TEMPORARY APPOINTMENTS
Apologies for absence and
temporary appointments were received as follows:
2/07
DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
Councillor Lesley Legge
declared a personal interest at Agenda Items 6 & 7 by virtue of being the
signatory for the appointment of the Oxfordshire Coroner.
Councillor Carol Viney
declared a personal interest at Agenda Item 5 by virtue of being a Board Member
of Thames Valley Police Authority.
Councillor Ian Hudspeth
declared a personal interest at Agenda Item 9 (Carbon Monoxide update) by
virtue of being a Director of Cottsway Housing
Association.
Councillor Ian Hudspeth declared a
personal interest at Agenda Item 9 (Carbon Monoxide update) by virtue of owning
a Hardware shop.
3/07
MINUTES
The Minutes of the meeting
of the Committee held on 4 December 2007 were approved and signed subject to
amending Minute 46/06 – Coroner’s Court Update as detailed at Annex 1 (download as .doc file) (amendments in bold italic and strikethrough).
Matters Arising
Minute 41/06 – The Oxford Health
Overview & Scrutiny Sub-Committee – the Director for Community Safety &
Chief Fire Officer reported that individually named school governors did not
hold responsibility for drugs and alcohol policies because governing bodies
took collective responsibility for this area. He undertook to provide a further
copy of the letter detailing this information to Councillor Farrow.
Minute 50/06 – the Committee had received 2
letters from the Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP regarding sprinklers in schools. These
were circulated around the Committee.
4/07
SPEAKING
TO OR PETITIONING THE COMMITTEE
The
following requests to address the meeting had been agreed:-
Councillor
Peter Handley, a West Oxfordshire District Councillor of seven years standing
and Deputy Mayor of Carterton expressed concern that there was still no fire
station in Carterton. He made the following points:
·
Carterton was a very large town with five
primary schools, two petrol stations and two trading estates;
·
whilst Carterton had always received a good
service from the Fire Service, some of the call out times were questionable;
·
he urged officers to look at the call out
patterns, commenting that 85% of the calls were from Bampton to Carterton;
·
all of the fire fighters were part time and
there were insufficient crew to maintain an adequate service;
·
terrorists could strike at any time on the
RAF quarters;
·
a number of possible sites for a new Fire
Station had already been identified. For example, the Town Council were willing to donate land; and
·
he urged officers to take his comments on
board as part of the Fire Cover Review.
5/07
THAMES
VALLEY POLICE AUTHORITY THREE YEAR STRATEGIC PLAN 2005 – 2008
(Agenda Item 5)
This item had been placed on the Agenda to enable
the Committee to receive a presentation from the Acting Chief Constable Ms Sara
Thornton, and Chief Superintendent Sean Morley (Basic Command Unit Commander)
on progress made with regard to Thames Valley Police Authority’s Three Year
Strategic Plan 2005 – 2008 and to conduct a question and answer session.
The Committee had invited Councillors from the
County’s Parish, District and Town Councils to submit questions for consideration
prior to the meeting and to attend the presentation. A
copy of the presentation is attached to the signed Minutes.
The Acting Chief Constable
made the following points:
·
the Force was part way through the 3 year strategy and was approaching
the end of the second year;
·
the challenges facing the Force included neighbourhood policing, community cohesion and its budget;
·
revenue costs were £329m for this year.
However, the Force had received less funding than it should have received due
to the government formula, being subject to damping;
·
housing growth was an issue as an increase
in population would require more police stations and possibly kiosks;
·
in terms of PPAF (Policing Performance
Assessment Framework) grades, reducing crime and citizen focus
had been given a grading of ‘fair’ whereas investigating crime, resource use and
providing assistance had all been deemed ‘good’, and local policing had been
graded ‘Excellent’;
·
over the last three years the British Crime Survey had recorded that crime
had fallen by 5.8% in Oxfordshire in comparison to the figure for 2003/04,
whereas the overall figure for the Thames Valley was a change of 6.8%;
·
there was less recorded crime in Oxfordshire than the Thames Valley
average (53.3 crimes per 1000 population versus 66.6);
·
the challenge was to make use of police officers when needed whilst
ensuring that everyone had access to a service;
·
in Oxfordshire, crime data was collected and analysed to enable the
Force to focus their resources on periods when higher levels of crime took
place. For example, the highest
incidences of common assault took place on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays
between 10 pm and 3 am;
·
the number of support staff in the Thames Valley had risen, which was
at its highest ever figure, whilst the number of special constables had fallen;
·
there were now dedicated Neighbourhood Policing resources in
Oxfordshire which included the creation of the post of Neighbourhood Specialist
Officer (NSO) who would remain in the neighbourhood for 3 years;
·
the Force aimed to have 417 Police
Community Support Officers (PCSOS) in place by the end of this year and 530 in place by the end
of March 2008. However this was a new job and recruitment had been slower than
recruitment to other posts as potential
applicants did not know anyone that had carried out the job before; and
·
the Police and Criminal Justice Act had just been passed. The Force
would need to be much more responsive to local needs and every Local Authority
was expected to set up a Crime & Disorder Reduction Committee/ Partnership.
The Committee then
questioned the Acting Chief Constable and Chief Superintendent regarding the
Plan. A selection of the questions asked together with their responses are
listed below:
·
How could antisocial behaviour in young people be addressed?
The Force was committed to
tackling antisocial behaviour as part of its neighbourhood policing strategy.
However, with 1.5 police officers for every 1000 people in Oxfordshire it
wasn’t possible to address all behaviour. Although the Police were responsible
for enforcement, it was everyone’s responsibility to set a good example. The
Police did not want to criminalise young people and worked with other agencies
to tackle this issue. It was also important that young people were involved in
neighbourhood action groups.
·
How
much input did the Police have in partnership working, in order to assist young
people to turn their lives around?
The Chief Superintendent
was a Member of the Safeguarding Children Board
and the Force was involved in the Safer Schools Partnership. It was important
to divert young people into other activities before they became involved in
crime.
·
What
were the priorities in responding to calls? (as there was a general feeling
that the police took too long to respond).
The Home Office set the
criteria for responding to calls. An immediate response to emergency calls was
required and the Force aimed to respond within 15 minutes. For most other
offences, if the offender had already left the scene then there was no requirement
on the Force to attend immediately or to put their blue lights on.
·
It
appeared to be the case that Police Constables were placed in areas of high crime whilst PCSOs were put
into areas with lower levels of crime. Would it not be possible to have 10 Police
Constables in place rather than 15 PCSOs? Were PCSOs funded by the Home Office
and could this funding run out?
The Force had limited
resources and had to use them wisely. PCSOs were not a substitute for Police
Constables and had a different role to play. Thames Valley Police had
deliberately kept the roles separate. The public appeared to welcome
PCSOs. The funding from the Home Office
was specifically for PCSOs and the remainder of funding for PCSOs was police authority
funded. The Force would be lobbying for the same levels of funding to be
retained.
·
Would
the training of PCSOs be brought back in-house and how was this training going?
New recruits
were sent to
·
Why
were many police stations only open for limited periods of time?
Resources were limited and
had to be used intelligently. In cost terms it was not possible to put a police
officer into every front office. However, it was also true that there were low
levels of callers in many areas. Therefore, the Force had been working very
hard to recruit volunteers to work in many of the County’s police stations.
·
What
plans were in place in terms of publicity in the localities to present the real
incidences of crime and therefore reduce fear of crime?
PCSOs were not being given
some of the powers that they could be given in order to ensure that they were
not taken away from the role of visibility in and engagement with the
community.
The Chief Superintendent
undertook to take account of the Committee’s suggestion that a newsletter could
be produced setting out the levels of recorded and detected crime in an area
and to consider other ideas that could be implemented as neighbourhood policing
was rolled out.
·
Members
of the public had complained that staff in the police enquiry centre did not
know the geography of the area where the caller was located. Was this the case?
There were two police
enquiry centres – one in Kidlington and one in
The Committee AGREED to thank the Acting Chief Constable and Chief Superintendent for their
informative presentation.
Ms Coldwell undertook to:
·
circulate a copy of the presentation to all members of the Committee;
and
·
provide the Acting Chief Constable with:
-
the contact details of those Parish/Town/District Councillors whose
questions had not been answered in Committee, to enable her to respond directly to them; and
-
Councillor Legge’s question requesting information on the nature of the
self service facility that would be made available to victims and witnesses.
Any Members wishing to visit
one of the Thames Valley Police Enquiry Centres (Kidlington/Windsor) were asked
to contact Ms Coldwell, who would forward their request to the Acting Chief
Constable.
6/07
CORONER’S
COURT UPDATE
(Agenda
Item 6)
The Committee had before
them a revised scoping template which had clarified the focus of the review on
the Coroner’s Caseload and Interaction with Oxfordshire County Council.
The Committee received a
progress update on the review from Councillors Legge and Mathew who reported as follows:
·
The White Paper (Coroner Reform – Improving death investigation in
·
The three main objectives of the review were to:
-
identify and review the various responsibilities involved in
the delivery of the Coroner’s function;
-
make recommendations to ensure that the service was
receiving adequate resource with which to discharge its functions efficiently
and effectively, in particular, in light of the current demand on the service
nationally; and
-
make recommendations to ensure that the delivery of the
Coroner’s Service represented best value for the residents of Oxfordshire.
·
The Service was performing a remarkable job considering the
circumstances in which it was working.
The Committee AGREED the amended scoping template
subject to:
·
removing the wording ‘nominate one Cllr’ from the ‘Members responsible
for tracking’ box; and
·
adding Mr John Kelly (County Emergency Planning Officer) to the list of
Witnesses.
Members of the Committee
were asked to submit any further comments as soon as possible to Councillor
Farrow, if they so wished.
7/07
CORONER’S COURT: Q&A SESSION
(Agenda
Item 7)
Concerns
had been raised by the Chairman of this Committee with regard to charges made
to the families of, or solicitors representing the families of military
servicemen killed in active service, with particular reference to:
·
the cost of the full inquest report (£600)
provided to solicitors on request; and
·
a £30 charge made for a transcript of the
inquest report put on to a CD.
Mr
Chris Mitchell (Proper Officer for the Coroner’s Service) and the Cabinet
Member for Community Safety had been invited before the Committee to answer any
questions which Members may have wished to ask.
Councillor Jelf reported
that the charge of £600 for the full typed inquest report was no longer raised
and that no charges would be levied to bereaved families in future for copies
of the transcript of the inquest report on CD.
In response to a suggestion
from the Committee, Mr Mitchell undertook to find out if
the outcomes of tribunals held in Oxfordshire could be placed on the County
Council’s web site, in order `to enable the public to find out the issues which
had been raised at the Coroner’s Inquests.
8/07
SCRUTINY WORK PROGRAMME 2006/07
(Agenda
Item 8)
The Committee had been asked to update its work programme.
Councillor
Farrow drew the Committee’s attention to the suggestion by Trading Standards
that the Committee might wish to conduct a review into the new controls
governing the sale of alcohol. The aspects to be examined could include the
following:
·
consistency of enforcement of the Licensing
Act;
·
co-ordination of the information/intelligence
around potential breaches/problem hot spots;
·
the effectiveness of the new Act and the Chief
Executive’s Memorandum of Understanding; and
·
the extent of alcohol misuse across
Oxfordshire (health and disorder implications).
The
Committee noted that the former Oxford Health Overview and Scrutiny Sub Committee had
already undertaken a review into alcohol misuse in young people.
Following debate, the Committee AGREED:
·
that it wished to undertake a review into the new controls
governing the sale of alcohol;
·
that this review would focus only on those areas which fell within the
Community Safety remit, for example, the impact of the Licensing Act; and
·
to note that:
-
Councillors Olive McIntosh Stedman, Rodney Rose and Ian Hudspeth would
wish to participate in this review; and
-
no further items would be added to the work programme at this point in
time.
The work programme would be
updated to reflect that Ms Dean was now the contact officer for the Review into
the Coroner’s Caseload and Interaction
with Oxfordshire County Council.
9/07
TRACKING SCRUTINY ITEMS
(Agenda
Item 9)
Report back on advice by this Committee to the Cabinet or
Council.
·
Fire Service Control and Command Room
The
Committee considered a written update (CM9) from Mr Colin Thomas (Community
Safety Business Manager), regarding progress of the project to date.
The Director for Community
Safety & Chief Fire Officer reported that he had received the outline
business case, which was predicated on a national saving. It was anticipated
that the full business case would be released in the next 2 to 3 months. This would
provide information on whether any savings would be generated.
The Committee AGREED to consider the full business
case once it became available.
·
Service
and Resource Planning 2007/08 - 2011/12
On 4 December 2006 this Committee had agreed to
forward the following advice to the Cabinet via the Corporate Governance
Scrutiny Committee:
·
to urge the Cabinet to fund Emergency
Planning and Safer Communities from the remaining sum of money to be allocated
across Directorates given that these areas were of vital importance; and
·
to advise the Cabinet that it wished the
co-responder scheme to be centrally funded in recognition of the fact that it
provided a life saving service to the residents of Oxfordshire, as evidenced by
the figures given to the Committee by the Director for Community Safety &
Chief Fire Officer regarding the number of people assisted and the societal
savings per annum (approx £7m).
On
16 January 2007 the Cabinet had agreed:
(a)
(in respect of revenue) to RECOMMEND Council
to approve:
(1)
a budget for 2007/08;
(2)
a medium term plan to 2011/12;
(3)
a budget requirement for 2007/08;
(4)
a precept for 2007/08;
(5)
a council tax for band D equivalent
properties;
(6)
virement arrangements to operate within the
approved budget;
(7)
the allocation of the PSA reward grant
between directorates and the corporate core;
(8)
the creation of a budget reserve in 2009/10
by deferring interest on developer contributions by one year; and
(9)
ask the County Council Management Team to
consider how the higher AES target from 2008/09 can be achieved;
(b)
(in respect of capital) to RECOMMEND Council
to approve:
(1)
that the schemes identified by the Capital
Steering Group should be included in the Capital Programme for submission to
Council in February 2007;
(2)
a Capital Programme for 2007/08 to 2009/10;and
(3)
prudential indicators from April 2007.
The Committee was pleased to note that:
·
the Safer
Communities budget and Emergency Planning budget would not be reduced as
proposed in the efficiency savings; and
·
funding had been
restored to the budget in recognition of the valuable service provided by the
co-responder scheme.
·
Carbon
Monoxide
At
its December meeting, this Committee had made a number of suggestions regarding
how to reduce the incidence of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning and had agreed to
monitor progress on the implementation of their action points. They had also
requested officers to provide them with information regarding action taken both
locally and nationally by other district councils and other agencies to address
this problem.
Mr
Simon Belcher (Station Manager and Directorate Support Officer) provided an
oral update on progress to date. Progress regarding each action point is listed
below:
The
Committee AGREED to:
·
note the progress update; and
·
thank officers for actioning their suggestions.
·
Car
Boot Sales Scrutiny Review
The
Committee noted that on 16 January 2007 the Cabinet had agreed to accept all of
the recommendations relating to this review.
10/07
FORWARD PLAN
(Agenda
Item 10)
Members were asked to suggest items from the current
Forward Plan on which they may have wished to have an opportunity to offer
advice to the Cabinet before any decision was taken.
No items were
identified for consideration.
11/07
AVIAN
INFLUENZA (BIRD FLU)
Mr
Nigel Strick (Head of Trading Standards and Registration) gave an oral
report on the recent discovery of birds
at Bernard Matthew’s Farm, Suffolk, suffering from avian influenza. He reported
as follows:
·
Veterinary officers had confirmed that the
virus in Suffolk was the H5N1 strain and had imposed a surveillance zone of 10
km around the farm; and
·
Officers in Oxfordshire had been watching
for any suspected cases of avian influenza and an emergency plan had been drawn
up in the event of a pandemic.
The Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire
Officer reported as follows:
·
the business
continuity management plan identified the critical services that needed to be
maintained for the first 7 days of an incident; and
·
the lead
regarding a flu pandemic was with Health. Mr Jonathan McWilliam had now been appointed as the Director for Public
Health in Oxfordshire. Work was underway regarding anticipated absenteeism and
what could be done to address this.
In response to a question from the Committee, the
Director for Community Safety & Chief Fire Officer undertook to look into
measures which could be undertaken to educate the public (especially children)
regarding what action to take if they came across a dead bird.
Date of signing....................................................................... 2007 |