Archived decisions

Contact : Jill Lovelock Ext 7591

1. Summary

1.1. This report summarises the District partnership community safety strategies for Basingstoke & Deane, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, New Forest, Test Valley and Winchester. It also identifies the priority themes in the strategies and the role of the County Council in implementing the actions.

2. Background

2.1. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 placed new duties on local authorities to develop crime and disorder reduction/community safety strategies. In two tier areas, the County Council, District Council and the police are equal statutory partners. The partners must undertake a local crime audit, consult on the results, prepare and publish a community safety strategy. The strategies run for three years, and local partnerships are just publishing their second strategies for the period 2002-2005.

2.2. The County Council has been involved in local partnerships through senior managers acting as Link Officers and more recently through Member representation. This has ensured the County Council has taken its responsibilities as a partner seriously and made appropriate input to the new strategies.

3. Strategies

3.1. The County Council needs formally to endorse all eleven partnership strategies, and this decision is included in the Council's forward plan as a key decision. The Executive Member for Community Development, Regeneration and Internal Liaison has endorsed the strategies from Basingstoke & Deane, Eastleigh, Fareham, Gosport, New Forest, Test Valley and Winchester at his decision day on 14 June. Copies of the strategies are held in the Chief Executives Policy Unit.

3.2. In addition to endorsing the strategies, the Council needs to understand and analyse the key issues and priorities in each strategy and ensure that departments build these into their service and action plans as necessary. The County Council has identified six key policy aims in its own community safety strategy and the District partnership strategies need to be analysed alongside these policy aims. This report on the partnership strategies includes more detailed analysis for this PRC to identify common themes across the strategies and priority actions for County departments to support.

4. Key themes and issues

4.1. The key themes for each of the strategies are listed below. Where partnerships have allocated lead agency responsibilities for these and the County Council has the lead role this is indicated.

4.2. Basingstoke & Deane partnership:

_ reduction in crime by and against young people

_ reduction in violent crime

_ create safer communities by identifying high crime areas

_ reduce the fear of crime

4.3. Eastleigh partnership:

_ reduce domestic violence (social services lead)

_ reduce burglary

_ reduce vehicle crime

_ reduce the incidence of violent and disorderly behaviour in public places

_ reduce problems of drugs and alcohol abuse

_ prevent young people becoming involved in crime (youth service lead)

_ reduce the number of racial incidents

_ address disorder issues of concern to residents in local areas

4.4. Fareham partnership:

_ target the supply and abuse of alcohol and drugs

_ reduce anti-social behaviour

_ increase reports of and improve responses to vandalism

_ reduce the fear of crime

_ increase reporting of, respond appropriately to and reduce the incidence of domestic violence, racially motivated crime and homophobic incidents

_ meet national Best Value targets for burglary, violent crime and vehicle crime

4.5. Gosport partnership:

_ youth crime

_ vulnerable victims

_ quality of life

_ traffic safety

_ vehicle crime

_ drugs

_ burglary

4.6. New Forest partnership:

_ reduce vehicle crime per 1,000 population

_ reduce domestic violence and deal effectively with hate crime

_ deal with youth diversion, offending and victimisation

_ reduce crimes of criminal damage/vandalism

_ reduce fear of crime

_ prevent drug and alcohol abuse and related crime

_ reduce the amount of anti-social behaviour suffered by the community

_ increase road safety and reduce the number of child casualties

4.7. Test Valley partnership:

_ address problems related to drugs/substance misuse

_ enhance quality of life for residents and businesses in the borough

_ reduce violent crime

_ support vulnerable victims

_ reduce vehicle crime

_ reduce burglary

_ improve communication/future planning of community safety issues

4.8. Winchester partnership:

_ tackle anti-social behaviour, specifically related to misuse of alcohol and fire setting

_ continue to address the problem of domestic violence through identifying the scale of the problem and raising awareness

_ continue to reduce domestic burglaries

_ reduce incidents of theft from and of motor vehicles and fires of abandoned vehicles

_ address concerns of residents in rural areas regarding volume and inappropriate speed of traffic

_ address the problem of drug misuse and where possible disrupt the supply of illegal substances

_ tackle violent crime

_ reduce fear of crime where perceptions exceed the true crime rate

_ continue to work with young people and reduce the number of repeat calls of incidents of perceived juvenile nuisance. (Education lead for some actions)

4.9. The common themes emerging so far are:

_ youth crime and youth nuisance behaviour

_ drugs and alcohol

_ fear of crime

_ domestic violence

5. County Council policy aims

5.1. The County Council agreed six key policy aims in 1999 alongside the preparation of the first local partnership strategies. This was to ensure a corporate framework for supporting local strategies, and to help local partnerships understand the priority actions the County Council would want to see reflected in local action plans.

5.2. The six policy aims are:

_ to minimise school exclusions, truancy and underperformance by measures including encouragement and support for learning

_ to divert young people away from crime and the risk of crime

_ to initiate and support community based projects in areas where there are special needs or which are recognised as being disadvantaged

_ to refocus economic development to enhance local employment prospects

_ to provide for community safety and crime reduction measures through land use and transportation planning and environmental management schemes

_ to deal effectively and speedily with young offenders.

5.3. Appended to this report is an analysis of the actions from the strategies against the six aims. Actions may fall under more than one policy aim, so a judgement has been made as to the most appropriate aim. There are some actions which do not fall within the six aims and these are also listed. Generally, these deal with actions for the partnership and issue such as monitoring and information sharing.

5.4. Drugs and alcohol abuse has already been identified as a common theme across the partnerships. This does not fit neatly within one of the County's policy aims - it can relate to aims 1,2,3,6 and is a cross-cutting theme. Actions relating to this theme have therefore been identified separately.

6. Action for the County Council

6.1. Now the full analysis of all eleven strategies is complete, departments will be asked to review those that fall within their areas of responsibility and to see how they can incorporate them into their service and action plans. As the six overall key aims are priorities for the County Council, many of the actions will already be included in mainstream service provision.

6.2. This Committee has a role to monitor and review the detailed actions. It is suggested that, as the strategies run for three years, a report is brought to this Committee on an annual basis to monitor the County Council's input to delivery of the strategies. This should focus on areas where the County Council has a lead responsibility and where we can make most impact.

7. Conclusion

7.1. The County Council is a statutory partner in all eleven District partnership community safety strategies and will be involved in implementing the agreed actions over the next three years. The County Council will input through the Member representatives on the partnerships, through the link officers and through specific actions being built into departmental plans.

7.2. Annual reports will be brought to this Committee monitoring and reviewing the actions to ensure the County Council inputs appropriately to delivery of the strategies.

Recommendations

1. That the analysis of local partnership strategies be noted.

2. That departments be advised of appropriate actions to take into departmental plans.

3. That monitoring reports are brought to this Committee on an annual basis.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act.

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