Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from the meeting.

There were no apologies for absence.

15 minute period for public contributions

There were no public contributions.

Members with interests should refer to the agenda item and describe the nature of their interest when the item is considered.

Members were reminded that declarations of interest should be made as and when the specific agenda item to which they related was under discussion.

There were no Part II items.

To receive the report of the Chair of the North Devon and Torridge Community Safety Partnership, Superintendent Toby Davies.

The Chair welcomed Superintendent Toby Davies.

Superintendent Davies introduced the report, explaining briefly the purpose and composition of the Community Safety partnership.  In addition to the bodies making up the North Devon & Torridge Community Safety Partnership, there were many sub-groups round specific areas of business and many members sat on other county wide groups.  The CSP considers local priorities but there is also a statutory duty to consider national priorities such as counter terrorism and modern-day slavery.  Additional functions have been added whereby, for example, if there is a domestic homicide or suicide in the area, there is an obligation to carry out a review and to take learning from this.

At county level there is a further body, the Safer Devon Partnership and the Chairs of the local CSPs are members of this body.

The role of partners in the CSP is voluntary but there is a small amount of funding from by the Police & Crime Commissioner to support various initiatives.  There will be changes to the funding next year and the CSP will have to bid for each aspect.

Covid-19 had consumed a lot of time and energy.  The emergency response had kicked in across the region and all CSPs had been fully engaged. The response had been fantastic.  Dealing with the pandemic remained a top priority.

The following statistics were provided:

·      Crime overall is down 13%, which equates to 1300 less crimes this year over last year.  Covid has had an impact, however, nationally the reduction in crime for the same period is 5%.

·      Outcomes – ability to detect crimes and catch offenders is the highest in the region.

·      There has been an increase in drug trafficking, weapons crimes, hate crimes.

·      There has been an increase in antisocial behaviour, a lot of which has been Covid related, i.e. people visiting 2^nd homes during lockdowns and socially distancing issues. 

The Torridge and North Devon area still remains one of the safest areas in which to live in in the country.  This is down to the collaborative working of the emergency services and the CSP partners.

Updates around specific areas of business:

Bitesize Training - A pioneering training initiative on emerging issues and other themes which affect the Torridge and North Devon communities.  These training sessions did have to be suspended due to Covid but prior to March, training sessions had been delivered on topics such as County Lines, exploitation, modern slavery and suicide prevention and intervention.  A recent session had been delivered online via Teams around cyber safety and scams.  The 2021 programme will be delivered online. 

Funding - £25,000 had been received for the year from the Police & Crime Commissioner.  The CSP’s spending intentions have to be ratified by the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner annually.  The spending intentions have to formalise and follow the Police and Crime Plan.  It had been intended that some of the funding should go towards continuing the Street Marshall Scheme but due to Covid and nightclubs/pubs not being open,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 October 2020.

It was proposed by Councillor Pennington, seconded by Councillor Newton and –

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 14 October be agreed and signed as a correct record.

A recorded vote was taken.

(Vote: 9 For, 1 Abstention)

Matters Arising

The Chair reported that he, the Lead Member for Community, Culture and Leisure and the Ward Members for Bideford Norrth had visited Mr Nigh of the Palladium Club.

Minute 8 – Play/Open space Strategy – proposed cycle track.  No information had been received.

Action: to be revisited.

There were no urgent matters.

The Public Health & Housing Manager outlined the work of Sunrise, an outreach group working with minority groups.  The Chair proposed Sunrise be added to the list of organisations for scrutiny at a future date.

It was requested that:

·         The Devon Partnership be invited to the January meeting. 

·         The remit for 10 March be finalised at the January meeting.

·         Petroc College / Promoting youth employment – April.