Agenda item

The Committee considered the report of the Business Manager – Public Protection which sought to provide Members with an update on the performance data and activities for crime and ASB across the Bassetlaw and Newark & Sherwood Community Safety Partnership.

The report set out the 2023/2024 performance and activities and set out the priorities for 2024/2025.  The appendices were restricted.

In considering the report the Chair statedindividual cases could not be discussed.

In noting the report Members asked questions of the Business Manager and also Inspector Charlotte Ellam of the Nottinghamshire Police Authority, who was in attendance at the Committee.

In noting the 11.8% reduction in anti-social behaviour a Member asked how accurate the figures were and how the Council ensured their accuracy as in the past the Council had put a lot of time and effort into campaigning for reporting, but that had not been the case recently.

The Business Manager - Public Protection responded that both the Council and Police highlighted the importance of reporting but that was an ongoing issue.  Those areas that have seen a drop in anti-social behaviour were specifically targeted for reporting, a lot of actions had been taken and as a result an improvement had been seen.  The Council and the Police were actively trying to increase reporting in a number of ways including within press releases.  There had been an increase in patrols by the Community Protection Officers who had been making connections with local groups and businesses so that reporting was more real life rather than being seen in news articles.  The Council and Police wanted to see more reports but in doing so this could result in seeing more in the % changes.

A Member asked for clarification on the numbers in the report noting that the figures showed that anti-social behaviour had reduced, in comparison to the Nottinghamshire Police statistics, which showed that crime had gone up.  This suggested that although the number of reported cases of anti-social behaviour may have reduced, if crime had gone up, then the reduction may not be as significant and that more should be done to push the importance of reporting.

In response Inspector Ellam advised that the crime figures refer to all crime therefore it was a broad subject matter and within the figures there would be a link to anti-social behaviour, but the vast majority were linked to other forms of criminality.

Reductions may refer to specific issues that had been targeted and which fell within the boundaries of anti-social behaviour.

In respect of youth anti-social behaviour particularly relating to a specific core group of young people within the town centre, a lot of work has been done to engage and divert them to make a real change. This group may account for a significant number of reports made over a short period of time and which may affect the figures.

The town centre also had issues with homelessness and street drinking. The partnership needed to work together to find ways of tackling this. Anti-social behaviour covered a broad spectrum and there was a need to adapt and target all issues of anti-social behaviour and actively encourage reporting.

AGREED      (unanimously) that the performance and priorities of the Community Safety Partnership be noted.