Issue - meetings

To consider report 46/11 of the head of corporate strategy. 

Councillor Bill Jones declared a personal interest in the item and stepped down from his role as committee member as he was unable to scrutinise himself, as he was the council’s appointed representative on the community safety partnership.  For this item, he joined the community safety officers at the table. 

Councillor Charlotte Dickson declared a personal and prejudicial interest in the item and left the meeting during its consideration. 

The committee considered report 46/11 of the head of legal and democratic services , appended to which was the community safety annual report for 2010/11.  This report came from the Community Safety Partnership, of which the council was a member.  Present at the meeting to answer the committee’s questions were two officers of the council and the Thames Valley Police Area Commander, Rob Povey, and the Thames Valley Police Authority representative, Hazel Bell. 

The chair invited Councillor Dudley Hoddinott to address the committee.  In relation to graffiti on a wall mural near MatthewArnold School at North Hinksey, he asked if anyone had inspected the artwork to check for graffiti since it was given an anti-graffiti coating?  Councillor Hoddinott also referred to the community safety partnership report and questioned whether the Police had reported a range of crimes in the parishes of North Hinksey and Cumnor?  He also asked when the partnership would take action, similar to that taken in the towns, to protect the residents in these parishes, especially the vulnerable groups such as the elderly. 

The committee noted that crimes in North Hinksey and Cumnor were included in the Abingdon area reports.  The officer reassured the councillor that the partnership’s work covered the whole district, including North Hinksey and Cumnor.  However, cleaning graffiti was the responsibility of the property owner. 

The committee welcomed the good news of the partnership’s success during 2010/11.  The committee considered the report in detail and noted that:

• Increases in the reporting of domestic abuse was seen as positive, as it showed that more victims were reporting abuse, not that the amount of abuse was increasing
• The officers would provide a map showing the police area boundaries within the district
• Statistics for underage drinking were available for areas across the district and could be supplied to the committee
• The street pastor schemes were part-funded by the council.  The partnership was pleased with the success of the street pastors’ scheme
• The partnership was adopting a range of road safety measures to reduce speeding.  One measure was a trial to add 30 miles per hour stickers to council wheeled waste bins in some villages.  No statistics were available on whether the trial had any positive effect on reducing speeding.  However, the statistics could be made available in due course
• The regular police neighbourhood updates to councillors listed events by ward.  However, the neighbourhood areas did not align with the district council wards.  Rob Povey agreed to investigate whether the ward boundaries could be changed to align with the district council’s.  Hazel  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56