ITEM No 7 Report of the Strategy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny. TITLE: Feedback from the meeting held on Monday 1st December 2008. Recommendations Neighbourhood Policing Salford West Strategic Regeneration Framework and Action Plan EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: This report informs Members of the matters considered by the Strategy and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny on Monday 1st December 2008. Issues considered were:- Neighbourhood Policing Salford West Strategic Regeneration Framework and Action Plan BACKGROUND DOCUMENTS: Reports to Scrutiny can be found on SOLAR CONTACT OFFICER: Peter Kidd, Senior Scrutiny Support Officer. Tel: 793 3322 E-mail: peter.kidd@salford.gov.uk WARD(S) TO WHICH REPORT RELATE(S): All KEY COUNCIL POLICIES: 1 DETAILS Issues considered Neighbourhood Policing Chief Superintendent Kevin Mulligan, Divisional Commander for Salford attended the meeting to deliver a presentation on neighbourhood policing, which is at the core of police activity. Following a definition and an outline of the benefits of Neighbourhood policing, the chief superintendent discussed the work that is being done by the police to engage with the communities to find out what they want and to ensure that this is reflected in their work and the work of partner agencies. The Chief Superintendent then described the breakdown of policing resources across the division. The commitment to Neighbourhood policing is demonstrated, by not only by the fact the neighbourhood teams have the largest manpower of the different sections, but also how the different sections work together to improve performance and respond to the needs of the community. In the last three years overall crime is down by a fifth. Last year crime statistics showed significant reductions and to August this year, with the exception of burglaries, the downward trends continue. Burglaries have increased for a number of reasons, but work continues to address this trend. In the short term the targeting of offenders and in the longer term work to improve the security of design in new developments will secure future reductions. Knife crime has been the subject of media hype. The Chief Superintendent was able to put knife crime into perspective, it makes up only a small percentage of violent crime in Salford. Violent crime is still a problem but the situation is improving in Salford. Figures are falling despite the public being encouraged to report crime and the increased number of offences being picked up on CCTV. Graphs showed the incidence of anti social behaviour per 1000 residents across the Greater Manchester force, the Salford division has the lowest figure. Also comparisons with the family of like forces show the greater Manchester’s incidence of anti social behaviour is below the average. The incidence of anti social behaviour over 9 months shows a downward trend. These figures combined with the information about the perception of crime from surveys, including the councils own big listening survey, actually show that the incidence and the public’s perception or fear of crime is reducing though there is still a lot of work to do to ensure that this trend continues in the right direction. Members discussed several issues; School based police officers seem to be working well. The neighbourhood policing teams are building relationships with schools and developing protocols for engagement, so that the police can be sure that the resources are in the right place and they are what the community want. The community committee in east Salford has noted and are pleased with the improvements they have seen as a result of visible neighbourhood policing. 2 Partnership work to help rehabilitate offenders while still in prisons has been successful and will be further developed in Salford and hopefully into Strangeways and other prisons. Follow up work on training packages offenders receive must be done when they are released to ensure that as far as possible they are rehabilitated. Clarity on the definition of hate crime and how it is recorded. Salford has one of the best detection rates of hate crime. The community is encouraged to report any hate crime Planning applications - to ensure security by design the police architectural liaison officers should be involved at the first stage of the planning process for any development so they have an opportunity to comment on any issues. Members have seen in many cases of planning application with no comment offered by police. This is possibly because many development plans pre-date the arrangement and hopefully this will not happen in future. The Public Service Response team are generating very positive feedback from the public; they deal with non emergency responses across the whole force and have succeeded in bringing in an appointment scheme, which has improved efficiency. The GMP crime recording process is very robust, figures are as honest as they could be GMP are awaiting the detail from other forces who are piloting the reduction of bureaucracy associated with the reporting of crime, but will ensure that there is no reduction in integrity of the statistics. Data on the perception of crime from victims is new and it is therefore difficult to draw any conclusions from this at the moment but this will be an important indicator in future years. Concern was expressed that incidents of anti social behaviour could be underreported. Feedback from community committees and other information sources suggest this is not the case but an eye will be kept on all the different aspects of this to ensure if there is significant underreporting this will be detected. Burglary statistics are increasing but actions are targeted to address this. Serial offenders are monitored, quicker turn round on DNA and finger print hits are proving effective. The force is also targeting ways of reducing the incidence of false reporting. Also Smart Water is also being more widely introduced as a deterrent and an aid to conviction. The number of Homewatch schemes are fewer but this could be partly due to the successes of the police and partners in neighbourhoods and the problem of engaging the public in more meetings. Ways to combine these programmes with other community meetings are being looked into. But the programme is still effective and the installation of signs are a deterrent. Members commented that the work in the community particularly with community committees is now excellent and with the associated improvement in service the force is heading in the right direction. 3 Partnership working is continuing to develop and work will be done to ensure that best practice is shared among communities across Salford. Salford West Framework Bob Osborne, assistant director and Maura Carey, group leader, from the sustainable regeneration directorate, attended the meeting to update members and discuss the Salford West Strategic Regeneration Framework & Action Plan. Maura reminded members of the overall vision and the framework timetable, the agreed priorities and the governance arrangements which will ensure delivery of coordinated investment to the community. Maura also described the wider investment taking place in the west of Salford. The money available for the programme is modest but will hopefully act as a catalyst bringing in further investment from other sources. The programme has adopted the Salford method of project management which will reinforce the clarity of direction and ownership. On the 3 priorities; The Liverpool road corridor has a 10 year strategy, the focussed task group has already started to deliver improvements. Hanging baskets and tree planting has begun to foster goodwill and resident and businesses have confidence that things are happening in the area. An audit of shop fronts has taken place and some in the neighbourhood centres have been targeted from improvement. The street scene has also begun to improve although incrementally. The task group concentrating on the town centres, Swinton Eccles and Walkden, have drawn up a programme of quick wins, and are looking at progressing development with realistic expectations. The tourism task group in Salford West has decided to focus on Worsley in particular the Bridgewater canal corridor, and is already receiving positive feedback on its proposals. The challenge that the framework faces is to keep focused and coordinate its investment with the wider investment picture, but above all to work with local businesses and residents to ensure delivery. Members raised several concerns Car parking in Eccles is a major problem the framework could be an opportunity to remove some of the yellow lines and generate some short term parking to boost retail businesses. Car parking is an issue that has to be considered across the three town centres for consistency, although the solutions may differ in each centre. Also the results of shopper surveys have focussed on the lack of retail offer rather than lack of parking as a problem when shopping in Eccles. Traffic engineers are looking into potential improvements to short term parking all along the corridor. What support is provided for small business in the Liverpool road area? The framework is fro funding capital projects but the economic development team is active in the area offering help and advice. 4 What are the plans for shop frontages in the Caddishead area? Work is on going with developers and businesses to encourage appropriate improvements to building façades but if the encouragement doesn’t work then enforcement measures are available as a last resort. Concerns that the speed of improvements in worsley is not fast enough to stop the decline in the attractiveness of the area. Tourism is in danger of disappearing. The council have considered a big bang approach but they could spend three years preparing a major funding bid and still be unsuccessful. An incremental approach to funding improvements could start now. The council is working with the heritage lottery fund and are in the process of engaging with the community to determine the priorities for investment in the area. Members would also like to see fully accessible public conveniences in the area and would like to see joined up thinking with regard to the Bridgewater canal area and Worsley woods. Maura will check that the friends of worsley woods are consulted on improvements. Are the partnership board papers available to the public? And is the strategy for Liverpool road available? Members would have like to have seen this strategy expand along the length of the A57 through Salford which would then include Eccles new road. Maura will circulate minutes and a link to the relevant web pages, and also to the strategy for the Liverpool road corridor. A summary of the strategy will be available in the new year. Members acknowledged that the work of the task groups is limited because the available money is modest, but were assured that everything possible is being done to the work with partners and community groups to attract more funding, and make sure it achieves the best value for money. Report from the last meeting The report was accepted. As was the report from the special meeting to discuss the call in of the decision to install a temporary ice rink at the civic centre. Work Programme The report was accepted. Members again stressed the importance of the consideration of the strategic economic development plan. scrutiny support will attempt to get this to the next meeting, or a the very least a position statement as to what stage it is at. Forward Plan A number of items were brought to members attention including the planned decision on the Salford Innovation Park. 5 Any other business Members asked if we could find out if in the light of a recent report on tackling worklessness Salford were to make an official response to the consultation. And if we knew how the council could influence the proposed regional groups and subsequent action plans and how any feedback would be reported into the council. Members also asked about the data economic development keep on jobs created do we in fact keep records of jobs created for local people as a result of investment / developments. Members also raised concerns about the lack of feedback on the progress of spotlighting projects. Next Meeting. - Monday 12th January 2008 Members Attendance Councillor September October November December Cllr Smyth Cllr R. Garrido Cllr McIntyre Cllr Ainsworth Cllr Bramer-Kelly Cllr Heywood Cllr Wilson Cllr Jolley Cllr B. Lea Cllr Macdonald √ √ A √ √ √ A √ A √ √ √ √ √ A √ √ √ N/A N/A √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ A √ √ A √ 6