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:
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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.
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
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.
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
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.
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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.
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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
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