Agenda item

The Director of Neighbourhoods and Environmental Services will receive a presentation updating the Commission on the Community Safety Plan and the Safer Leicester Partnership work.

Members of the Commission are recommended to receive the presentation and pass comments to the Director of Neighbourhoods and Environmental Services for consideration.

The Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services submitted a presentation updating the Commission on the Community Safety Partnership.

The Deputy City Mayor introduced the presentation and asked Members of the Commission for feedback on what they would like to see prioritised and if they had any suggested amendments to the plan being proposed.

The presentation outlined the partnership’s vision, priorities and the steps being considered going forward.

Members of the Commission were pleased with the level of work delivered by the Service in tackling Street Lifestyle issues. it was noted that homelessness was a factor that contributed to this agenda and the service were praised for bringing the number of people on the streets down since the commencement of the project. Members were concerned with how they could get involved and where information to support victims was available.

Members of the Commission were concerned that that the street lifestyle issue was not just an issue that was city centre based and shared their concerns about it spreading to other areas of the city. it was noted that the city centre pilot that had been launched two years ago was now a city-wide initiative, taking a person-centred approach to tackle street lifestyle. The service has been able to make a big difference and continue to do so with no additional resources, with the work receiving national interest. Officers welcomed members to feedback; both negative and positive on this work as this would help improve service.

During the discussion Members raised concerns with Goscote House and its future. Members were pleased to see the work with the former International Hotel underway but believed that this had resulted in the ASB issue being moved from one disused building to another.  Officers explained that an Abandoned Building Task Group had been established to deal with and manage these concerns.

Members of the Commission were pleased to hear that the service were prioritising and working with partners (e.g. HMRC, Health & Safety Executive) to target issues around modern-day slavery. The pilot scheme which was in its early days was focussed on the garment industry. Members of the commission added that there were many other industries where this was an issue. It was hoped that the scheme would help identify how and what forms of support could be provided through frontline staff.

Members of the commission suggested that the priorities noted in the presentation were still key areas of work and should continue to be prioritised. Additionally, Members’ feedback on the plan was that an additional priority should be added around cyber fraud. Officers noted that this was definitely an area to be considered as this had become a key issue.

Officers shared their concerns with many areas of local issues that are not reported and encouraged members to use avenues such as the Ward Community Meetings and the Community Gold Meeting (27 January 2020) to report these issues to officers.

AGREED:

1)    That Officers be commended for work being done and is reassuring and hope the work continues to support those that are vulnerable in the new plan;

2)    That the Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services be requested to provide the results on the pilot on modern day slavery and this item to be added to the work programme;

3)    That the Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services be requested to take into consideration comments made by members, particularly cyber fraud, support outside of the city centre being enhanced and information being disseminated to ward members;

4)    That the Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services be requested to send an invitation to the Community Gold Meeting to Members;

5)    That the Director of Neighbourhood and Environmental Services be requested to further update the Commission in a years’ time on how progress is being made on priorities outlined;

6)    And that the presentation  be noted.