Meeting documents

The Chairman welcomed Members to the meeting.

Apologies were received from:

Julie Burton

Arif Hussain

There were no declarations of interest.

Background

This the second of the evidence gathering meetings for the joint County and District crime and disorder review. The aims of the review are both to explore how the Safer and Stronger Bucks Partnership Board is fulfilling its crime and disorder functions and to improve how we work with partners to communicate messages to residents that help reduce the fear of crime.

This topic has been chosen as reducing the fear of crime is a key priority in the recently agreed Safer Bucks Plan, and there continues to be disparity between falling crime rates overall in Buckinghamshire and residents’ perception about the prevalence of criminal activity in their local area.

Purpose

Contributors have been invited to talk to members of the task and finish group about their community safety role. They will inform members about current work they are undertaking with partners which is aimed at reducing the fear of crime, and will explain how their organisation communicates messages about crime rates etc to residents. In addition they will identify where they think improvements could be made and barriers to progress.

Members will have an opportunity at the end of both presentations to ask questions.

The Chairman set the scene of the meeting as follows:

Background

The Chairman explained that this was the second of the evidence gathering meetings for the joint County and District crime and disorder review. The aims of the review were both to explore how the Safer and Stronger Bucks Partnership Board is fulfilling its crime and disorder functions and to improve how we work with partners to communicate messages to residents that help reduce the fear of crime.

This topic was chosen as reducing the fear of crime is a key priority in the recently agreed Safer Bucks Plan, and there continues to be disparity between falling crime rates overall in Buckinghamshire and residents’ perception about the prevalence of criminal activity in their local area.

Purpose

Contributors had been invited to talk to members of the task and finish group about their community safety role. They were asked to inform members about current work they are undertaking with partners which is aimed at reducing the fear of crime, and to explain how their organisation communicates messages about crime rates etc to residents. In addition they were asked to identify where they thought improvements could be made and barriers to progress.

First contributor – Bryan Dugdale

The Chairman welcomed Brian to the meeting.

Brian introduced himself and explained that he works for Bucks Fire and Rescue Service.  He has been at Bucks for 32 years and has had varied positions.  The first 20 years he spent working in High Wycombe and the last 5 years he has been in charge of the Fire Safety Partnership.

The Fire Safety Partnership is informed by an integrated risk management plan.  There is a neighbourhood plan in each District.  The High Wycombe neighbourhood plan, for example, has activities from neighbourhood action groups, which also serves the aim of the plan. The demographic and broad profile is supported with a locality map, and includes details of fire and risk areas.

The main service areas are:

• Prevention and detection
• Response
•  

The Fire and Rescue Service has 11 significant partnerships. The Community Safety Partnership is important and one we support at District & County level.

• Demographic risk analysts
• Performance manager
• Road safety officer at County and District levels.

Initiatives carried out by Bucks Fire and Rescue are as follows:

1.         The Home Safety Check Scheme started in Chiltern District Council in 2005.  There have been 8,000 visits to homes and 9,000 to other agencies, for example, adult social care.  The delivery of the checks is carried out by operational crews and each station has targets, High Wycombe for example, has a target of 1,300 per year.

2.         There are also wide-ranging youth engagement courses that are delivered by the team which feed into different curriculum areas and include the dangers of being involved in crime.  Working with youth offenders, the Police  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chairman will discuss with members the key points raised during the meeting. There will be an opportunity for members to review the evidence heard so far, and to decide on any further evidence / visits required.

Following the two contributors there was a review of the key points raised in the meeting.  These key points are summarised below:

• There were two tests that could be applied to the fear of crime: Do I feel safe at home and do I feel safe in the street?  However, the perception about crime could be dependent on a number of factors.

• Anti Social Behaviour and burglary were two main areas that seemed to be particularly relevant to the fear of crime.

• Peoples’ concerns about safety could be linked to young people i.e. groups of youths congregating together. 

• One way to reduce the fear of crime is to reduce serious crime and get the message out that it is reducing across to the residents.  This would be best done at a strategic level by working much closer with partnerships.

• To reduce the fear we have to improve problem areas by working together effectively (for instance by ‘community clean up’ projects).

• Police should bring into review licensing hours if it is a problem.

The Members all agreed that another date needed to be arranged for the Task and Finish group to meet in early August before the next meeting on 24 August 2010.

                                                                                          Action: Nazneen Ahmad

Tuesday 24 August 2010, 2.00pm – 5.00pm, Mezzanine Room 3, County Hall, Aylesbury

The purpose of this meeting will be to consider the results of the questionnaire sent to members of the Safer and Stronger Bucks Partnership Board, look at best practice from other areas discuss emerging findings from the review.

• The next meeting will be arranged for early August.

• Tuesday 24 August 2010, 2.00pm-5.00pm, Mezzanine Room 3 County Hall, Aylesbury.

The purpose of this meeting will be to consider the results of the questionnaire sent to members of the Safer and Stronger Bucks Partnership Board, look at best practice from other areas discuss emerging findings from the review