Agenda item

That the Head of Policy and Organisational Development, updates the Committee on crime and disorder and community safety.

Recommended                     -   That the comments and recommendations of the Committee be noted and actioned, as required.

The Cabinet Portfolio Holder for Community Safety, Councillor Clare Pritchard, submitted a report to update the Communities and Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee on the Community Safety Partnership.  Councillor Pritchard was accompanied by the Community Safey Manager who supported her in the presentation to Committee.

Councillor Prichard referred Members to the report and the three attached appendices, as below:

Appendix 1 – Hyndburn & Pennine CSP Structures 2024-25

Appendix 2 – Hyndburn District Profile 2025

Appendix 3 – Lancashire Strategic Assessment 2025-28

Members had submitted several questions, in advance of the meeting, to the Officer and Cabinet Porfolio Holder and responses were provided as below:

Why are the Ribble Valley and Pendle Borough Council’s not represented on the Community Safety Partnership?

Pendle are an unofficial partner and do attend the Pennine partnership meetings.  Ribble Valley are not part of the partnering due to resource.

Statistics show that women are at their most vulnerable to abuse when pregnant.  The Hospital Emergency Department has a process of dealing with maternity cases of concern so that issues of violence, domestic abuse, domestic homicide etc. are picked up and dealt with through a multiagency approach.  How do maternity vulnerabilities fit into the CSP priorities?

This is a public health priority as stats are rising.  HARV are an integral part of the CSP and work closely with our Public Health Colleagues and Victim Support in devising vulnerability markers to prevent this abuse and provide wraparound support throughout the entire pregnancy.  Hyndburn CSP attend the Lancs-wide DA forum where this rising issue is tabled for action and hold a local DA multi-agency partnership to expedite actions from the forum.

A Public Spaces Protection Order has been proposed for Accrington town centre, could you detail what the PSPO will cover and the consequences if it is breached.  Do they have enough Police resources to deal with the outcomes?

PSPOs can be used to restrict a broad range of activities.  Under Section 59 of the 2014 Act, local authorities must be satisfied on reasonable grounds, as listed in the Act.

The public determine this activity based upon survey results.

Breach of a PSPO is a criminal offence.  The penalty for breach of a PSPO can be a fixed penalty notice of £100.  A person committing an offence will have 14 days to pay the penalty.  However, if someone persistently breaches an order they could receive more formal action such as a Community Protection Warning/Notice of a Respect Order (nee ASBO).  Failure to comply with the order if prosecuted is an offence carrying a maximum fine of £1000. 

There will be no reliance on the Police to determine a breach.  The Council and the entire CSP partnership can report breaches including members of the public and businesses via the radio network we have amongst retailers within the town centre of Accrington. 

Could there be an extension of the PSPO to other town centres?

Yes

The Neighbourhood Boards are considering community safety in the town centre and, with funding allocated through the Levelling Up fund for this, could you suggest ways in which funding could be used and which services would need to feed into this?

To have a dedicated team addressing anti-social behaviour within the town centre and for additional services for youths and family event spaces.

Councillor Pritchard added that there had been concern about the prolific shoplifting taking place in the town centre but that action was being taken to address this.

The Chair referred to the radio network project and asked how long the scheme had been working and if it had been a success.

Councillor Pritchard reported that the scheme had been operating for many years and informed the meeting that larger businesses often used the scheme more than smaller businesses but agreed that there could be greater promotion of the project to increase use of the scheme.

Members of the Committee expressed concern about the levels of anti-social behaviour in Accrington Town Centre. 

Councillor Pritchard pointed out that the Police Inspector for Accrington had recognized the problem of anti-social behaviour in Accrington Town Centre and intended to focus on this issue.

Members referred to the local multi-agency operations, Op Centurion and the Bin the Banger project.  They acknowledged the additional £2m secured by OPCC to enable Hyndburn to benefit from additional foot patrols to target ASB in key areas and asked about the effectiveness of these operations. The Committee was informed that anti-social behaviour in the town centre had been recognized as an issue and that extra funding would be advantageous in addressing this.  They were also provided with information on how abandoned vehicles were dealt with. 

Councillor McKenna reported on the issues of anti-social behaviour and drug dealing happening in her ward, Barnfield, and informed the meeting how she had built up a good working relationship with the neighbourhood PCSOs in addressing these issues. 

Councillor Pritchard informed the Committee of the projects in place to deal with anti-social behaviour around the borough and agreed that the PCSOs did do a good job.  She also explained how Youth Services contributed to this.  The Community Safety Manager outlined the effectiveness of the Youth Panel and gave details of how it worked.

Councillor Fazal asked if anything was being done about issues of hate crime in the town centre.  He also referred to the importance of sporting events and activities for young people in the prevention of anti-social behaviour.

Councillor Pritchard responded that there had been conversations with the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner to discuss how to deal with rising tensions.  She reported that the intention was to deal with issues immediately, sending out a message of this behaviour not being acceptable.

Resolved                    -     That the Community Safety Manager be thanked for the work she has done and for the report to be noted.