Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Cllrs Bowles, Knight, Mahon, Stannard and Waite.

A temporary Chairman was elected for the meeting – Cllrs Catherine Oliver and Greg Smith were both proposed and seconded and following a vote, Cllr Oliver took the chair.

The Chairman welcomed two new members to the Committee, Cllr Nabeela Rana and Cllr Jaspal Chhokar.

There were none.

The minutes of the meeting held on 29^th June 2023 to be confirmed as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 29^th June 2023 were agreed as a correct record.

Public questions is an opportunity for people who live, work or study in Buckinghamshire to put a question to a Select Committee.

The Committee will hear from members of the public who have submitted questions in advance relating to items on the agenda. The Cabinet Member, relevant key partners and responsible officers will be invited to respond.

Further information on how to register can be found here: https://www.buckinghamshire.gov.uk/your-council/get-involved-with-council-decisions/select-committees/

There were none.

Following the Committee’s Community Board review which was presented to Cabinet in May 2022, Members will receive a further update on the implementation of their recommendations.

Contributors:

Cllr Arif Hussain, Cabinet Member for Communities

Roger Goodes, Service Director – Partnership, Policy and Communications

Wendy Morgan-Brown, Head of Partnerships and Communities

The Chairman welcomed Cllr Arif Hussain, Cabinet Member for Communities and Wendy Morgan-Brown, Head of Partnerships and Communities to the meeting.  The Cabinet Member reminded the Select Committee that its report to Cabinet in May 2022 included 11 recommendations and following an update on progress presented to Committee in February, this was the final update on the implementation of those recommendations.  Alongside the Select Committee report there had also been proposals from a Cabinet Member Task and Finish Group and the internal service review which had contributed to some significant changes in how Community Boards operated.

The Cabinet Member highlighted three recommendations in particular – Recommendation 5 was for a proactive communications strategy for Community Boards.  A strategy had been agreed by January 2023 and since then all Community Board Managers had received social media training to enable them to promote the activity of their Board and all Community Boards have seen an increase in followers as a result.

Recommendation 7 was related to Highways schemes and considering an alternative mechanism for their delivery.  Following the introduction of a new highways contractor in April 2023, a new six step process had been established to help to identify realistically deliverable schemes and a highways handbook had been created to provide cost information for the most commonly requested solutions. A review of schemes that had been submitted but not begun had been undertaken and now approved schemes were moving forward for delivery by March 2024.

Recommendation 10 was to establish a mechanism to evaluate projects which had received Community Board funding.  A new evaluation form was now in place, which enabled reflection on whether the aims of a project had been delivered effectively. 60 evaluation forms have been distributed to date, with 8 already completed and Community Board Managers would be following up on each of the projects and reporting back to the Cabinet Member and Community Board Chairmen every quarter.  The evaluations would also be used to inform the annual Community Board report to Council.

The Cabinet Member also reported that a further review of the Community Boards would shortly be undertaken in light of the electoral boundary changes which would come into effect in 2025.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member for providing this overview and invited Members’ questions.  In response to questions and during subsequent discussions, the following main points were noted:

• The Highways Handbook included suggested solutions for local road safety issues.
• A Member congratulated the team on increased levels of community engagement.  He gave an example of a recent Community Board meeting which was very well-attended by residents who were supportive of 20mph speed limits but the Chairman was reluctant to discuss the pros and cons of the issue and kept repeating the Council’s policy on 20mph limits – was this an example of proper engagement? In response, the Cabinet Member explained that the Community Boards were there to engage with local people but also had to support the priorities and policies of the Council and sometimes  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Further to Budget Scrutiny highlighting the need for a strategic approach to further capital investment in CCTV in Buckinghamshire, the Committee will receive an update on the next steps in terms of the development of a CCTV strategy.

Contributors:

Cllr Arif Hussain, Cabinet Member for Communities

Gideon Springer, Head of Community Safety

The Chairman welcomed Cllr Arif Hussin, Cabinet Member for Communities and Gideon Springer, Head of Community Safety to the meeting. 

Cllr Hussain gave a brief overview, making the following points:

• Buckinghamshire Council had inheritedseveral different CCTV systems from the five former councils which covered public spaces and council buildings.
• Some of these systems were 10-15 years old and would need to be replaced

• A draft had been developed for the CCTV Strategy 2023 to 2028 to cover the whole county.

Gideon Springer gave a presentation detailing the strategy with the following key points:

• Buckinghamshire Council was committed to helping the police prevent and detect crime and disorder and give residents a greater feeling of safety.
• There had been a wide consultation on the aims and principles for the strategy, with the key aims being increasing the safety of the public, prevention of anti-social behaviour and prevention of violence against women and girls.
• The majority of CCTV in public spaces was controlled by local authorities and had led to a 13% reduction in crime.
• A CCTV Advisory Group would be established to monitor all CCTV development work and performance. This will include Members, the police and other stakeholders including the Safer Buckinghamshire Partnership Board.
• There were 222 cameras in public spaces and car parks in Buckinghamshire.
• There were fixed and temporary CCTV cameras which could help with traffic management. Cameras were most effective when placed in town centres.
• From 1^st October 2023 a single control room would be established at High Wycombe.
• Provision of CCTV was not a statutory duty for the Council. A to £3-3.5 million pound investment was proposed for CCTV over the next three to four years, with the funding focussed on key towns, such as Aylesbury, High Wycombe and Chesham.
• The Council was compliant with the Surveillance Commissioner’s code of practice.
• The success of the CCTV system would be measured by a number of means, including the audit of incident logs, the number of arrests made and the use of data images to investigate and prosecute perpetrators.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Hussain and Gideon Springer for providing this overview and invited Members’ questions.  In response to questions and during subsequent discussions, the following main points were noted:

In response to a Member’s question about a map showing areas covered by CCTV, Gideon Springer explained that a map exists in the control room. Members would be invited to visit the control room on a given date 
                                                                                                           Action: Gideon Springer

• In response to a point made by a Member on the definition of high harm crimes, Gideon Springer agreed that this was a political term but noted that Members would be included in the CCTV oversight group.  He also noted that the council would retain control of the CCTV cameras but allow the  police to have access.
• A Member suggested that the use of emojis and facial images could be useful in alerting the public to the presence of CCTV and Gideon Springer advised that the effectiveness of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee will receive an overview of the Council’s proposed Serious Violence Strategy before it is presented for agreement at Cabinet. 

Contributors:

Cllr Arif Hussain, Cabinet Member for Communities

Gideon Springer, Head of Community Safety

Cllr Hussain gave a brief introduction, explaining that local authorities now had a duty to develop a Serious Violence Strategy. The strategy would cover the period 2023 to 2026.

Gideon Springer, Head of Community Safety made the following points:

• The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 created a duty for local authorities and other specified bodies to create a Serious Violence Strategy.
• Buckinghamshire Council formed a group to develop the strategy. This was chaired by the Head of Children’s Services as serious violent crime often involved young people.
• In consultation with key groups including Community Safety, Children’s Service and the Youth Offending Service, five priority areas were identified:

1.   Raising awareness of serious violence

2.   Supporting early intervention for vulnerable young people at the highest risk of involvement with serious violence

3.   Creating awareness of serious violence amongst the Safer Bucks Board

4.   Supporting offenders released from custody who are most at risk of re-offending

5.   Proactive responses where serious violence takes place using a People Groups Places approach

• The strategy was in the late stage of development and would go forward to Cabinet for sign off in December 2023 and then shared with the Home Office in January 2024.  Partners were working on an Action Plan that would sit beneath the strategy.

The Chairman thanked Gideon Springer for providing this overview and invited Members’ questions.  In response to questions and during subsequent discussions, the following main points were noted:

·       Cllr Robin Stuchbury attended the meeting and asked the following question - Your report states that there has been a 43% increase in reported rapes and a 36% increase in reported sexual assaults, with 2783 offences, including domestic abuse reported between 2018 and 2023.  In 2016, the Children’s Select Committee of Buckinghamshire County Council, of which I was a member, undertook a review on Child Sexual Exploitation and one of the strong recommendations from that report was improved information sharing between agencies such as the Council, Police, Health and Education. As a result the MASH was set up to offer a multi-agency response to include specialist CSE social workers. The specific numbers of sexual offences against young people is not stated. Please can you provide specific figures on these types of offences and provide assurance that the issue of child sexual exploitation has been carefully considered as part of this new strategy, as it is important that our most vulnerable young people are protected.

• Cllr Hussain thanked Cllr Stuchbury for his question and reported that 1568 young people had been the victims of sexual assault over the five year period. The strategy had been put together in consultation with Children’s Services, Youth Offending, Probation, Police and Health partners and had children at the heart of it.  Four of the five principles were focussed on children and young people as they could be victims and perpetrators.  Child sexual exploitation was part of this, as young people who perpetrate serious violence were often being exploited.
• A Member asked to what extent  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Committee will discuss the work programme and note the items for the next meeting.

Contributors:

All Committee Members

The Scrutiny Manager reported on the progress of the Digital Exclusion review group. An initial scene setting meeting had been held with Council officers in Customer and Digital and Members would be meeting with Adult Learning shortly.  It was hoped that the review group would also visit Adult Learning Centres to speak to some learners directly about their experience.

The next meeting will take place on 22^nd November 2023 at 10am

22^nd November 2023 at 10.00am