Agenda item

The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Communities to submit a report seeking approval to adopt the proposed Community Safety Strategy 2021-23, providing an overview of the issues impacting on communities across the borough and setting out how the Council and partner agencies seek to resolve long standing issues.

Cabinet

 

1)    NOTED the report and the ongoing contribution of the Community Safety Partnership to ASB issues across the borough and the direction of travel for the Community Safety Partnership;

 

2)    RECOMMENDED to Council that the proposed Community Safety Strategy 2021-24 be approved.

Andrew Cotton, Director for Housing and Communities introduced the report, the purpose of which was to seek approval to adopt the proposed Community Safety Strategy 2021-23, provide an overview of the issues impacting on communities across the borough and set out how the Council and partner agencies seek to resolve long standing issues.

 

Mr. Cotton advised that the Strategy set high level priorities and the approach of the Community Safety Partnership in working together to meet the needs of the community, in relation to crime and anti-social behaviour.  The Strategy sought to bring partner agencies together with a unified approach and these agencies were detailed at paragraph 4.3 of the report (delivery would involve additional agencies, including the voluntary sector).

 

Mr. Cotton highlighted that adoption of the Strategy would place a greater emphasis on engagement with communities to understand the needs of residents and also progress proactive and preventative work.  Key areas of focus for the Strategy were detailed at paragraphs 5.5 to 5.11 of the report.

 

Mr. Cotton confirmed that the Strategy had been developed in consultation with the public and other stakeholders and agreed with the Community Safety Partnership.  If adopted, a community safety action plan would be developed to identify specific actions and areas of focus and progress would be reported to Scrutiny Committee annually.

 

Councillor Alan Pearson, Portfolio Holder for Housing and Communities commented that much work was being undertaken on community safety, with a focus on issues relevant to Melton and linking to county and national work.  Domestic violence had been identified as an area of concern and the Council had entered into the Perpetrator Programme to focus action to tackle this.  It was crucial to challenge crime and anti-social behaviour and the Council was doing a great deal of preventative work. 

 

During discussion the following points were noted:

 

·         Members thanks the Director for Housing and Communities, his team and Councillor Pearson for their work.

·         Members were pleased with the work undertaken by the Council as part of the Community Safety Partnership.

·         Crime had a huge impact on the victim and on the community.

·         Promoting community safety was important to the public.

·         Domestic violence had increased and it was important to encourage victims to report this crime and ensure their safety.

 

DECISIONS (NON-KEY)

 

Cabinet:

 

1)    NOTED the report and the ongoing contribution of the Community Safety Partnership to ASB issues across the borough and the direction of travel for the Community Safety Partnership;

 

2)    RECOMMENDED to Council that the proposed Community Safety Strategy 2021-24 be approved.

 

Reason for the decisions

The Council’s Corporate Strategy 2020-24 commits to two key priorities which impact upon the Community Safety Strategy:

·         Excellent services impacting positively on our communities (Priority one);

·         Connected and led by our community (Priority six)

 

The strategy seeks to enable the Council and partner agencies to be able to deliver community focused services in an efficient and effective manner, meeting the needs of our diverse and complex communities.

 

Section 6 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 sets out the requirement for responsible agencies, including Melton Borough Council, to work together in formulating and implementing a strategy to tackle crime and disorder in the area.

 

Additionally, the Crime and Disorder (Formulation and Implementation of Strategy) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 set out the requirement for Community Safety Partnerships to share such strategies with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and for these to be reviewed on an annual basis.

 

The proposed strategy will replace the existing strategy (2017-20) with a greater focus on services understanding the needs of communities, and seeking to facilitate change from within the community as opposed to externally facilitated service delivery.

 

The strategy will also seek to build on the operational focus of the previous strategy (2017-20) by allowing communities to see the services provided by the partnership as part of the fabric of the community where underlying causes of demand and vulnerability can be addressed.

 

The strategy also seeks to cement the relationship of partner organisations under one defining approach to service delivery, one of localised services with a strong engagement philosophy.