Issue - meetings

The purpose of the item is to provide an opportunity for consideration of any request to call in a decision.  A Call-in request has been made in relation to the decision made by Cabinet which was published on 31 December 2015 regarding City Centre Anti-Social Behaviour Enforcement - DEC15/CAB/106.

Cabinet received a report the purpose of which was to outline proposed measures that would change the way enforcement and compliance activity of Peterborough City Council was delivered.

The Leader introduced the report highlighting the main issues contained within. The Council had for some time successfully collaborated with colleagues from the Public Protection Services, most notably the Police and the Fire service, and the ambitious step had been taken to integrate Officers from across the Public Sector to develop a single Community Safety Service that helped to prevent crime, tackle anti-social behaviour and tackle the fear of crime. However, some of the issues affecting the city and its residents had become of concern; issues such as fly tipping, littering, poor housing conditions, begging and street drinking. These issues did nothing to promote the city and to help people feel safe and protected. The outlined proposals presented to Cabinet would build on the work already carried out by the Community Safety Service and would also bring together all of the enforcement professionals from across the council into a single managed service.

The Council’s Service Director City Services and Communications addressed Cabinet and outlined the proposals, which in summary were to merge the Council’s CCTV Officers, the Parking Enforcement Officers, the Neighbourhood Enforcement Officers, Housing Enforcement Officers and Community Safety Officers and to have a single enforcement team that would not just address the issues in the City Centre but would address issues city wide.  

The Council’s Service Director Adult Services and Communities and the Head of Community and Safety Services addressed Cabinet and advised how the proposals would build upon the service which was currently in place, how the team would operate, how the proposals would work in practice and the benefits for the whole city.

Cabinet debated the report and proposals, addressing the concept of the proposals being city wide and not just city centre focussed. In summary, key points raised and responses to questions included:

·         Consistency of approach in relation to how the new proposals would be achieved through training provision and by performance monitoring, via a performance data system, and leadership. The training provided would be a recognised package;

·         The service would build capacity by multiskilling a range of officers who currently could only enforce a single issue. This approach would ensure all parts of the community were reached;

·         The service would be evidence based and reports of prolific fly tipping, littering and door to door crime would feature heavily in profiling work;

·         The service was for the whole of Peterborough and work had been undertaken with the Rural Scrutiny Committee on how for example similar enforcement functions could be expanded to rural communities;

·         A programme plan would be developed for implementation from April 2016 and this would include a communications campaign ensuring all groups were advised of the proposals;

·         It was commented that low level crime, particularly in parks, was becoming more and more of an issue and the proposals represented a positive move towards being able  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6