Agenda item

To receive an update from the Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods on the Council’s community safety work over 2023.

66.1    The Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods, Councillor Padilla, provided an introductory overview. He advised that the Council’s Community Safety Team had doubled in 2023 as a result of external funding secured by the team, noting that the Community Wellbeing Team Leader as the Community Safety Lead had secured £1.08m of external funding to help the Council deliver community safety projects.

66.2    Councillor Padilla outlined some key developments within the Council’s community safety work, including the receipt of Safer Streets funding from the Home Office which had enabled the Council to recruit a Safer Spaces Lead Officer, and the work of the Stronger Safer Gloucester Partnership (SSGP) which he noted was regarded as the most active community safety partnership in the county. Councillor Padilla paid tribute to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner and local policing teams for their work in addressing safety issues, and advised Members that the Community Safety team would be looking to develop a new Community Safety Strategy for Gloucester from 2025 onwards.

66.3    The Community Wellbeing Team Leader delivered a presentation providing further information about the work of the Community Safety team over 2023, including the Stronger Safer Gloucester Partnership, youth violence prevention, external funding updates and Street Aware work, including the ‘Op Ebrius’ operation to tackle street drinking in Gloucester city centre. She also updated Members on the Council’s Safer Spaces work and initiatives the team were exploring to gather data around how safe people feel within the city.

66.4    The Inspector introduced himself to Members and provided an overview of burglary and vehicle crime statistics, noting that there had been a 14% reduction in these crimes in 2023 compared to 2022. He advised Members that he would be happy to provide further data if requested.

66.5    Councillor Wilson asked whether the Community Wellbeing Team structure chart could be circulated to Members, to which Community Wellbeing Team Leader agreed that she would be happy to do so though the Democratic Services team.

66.6    In response to an additional question from Councillor Wilson regarding the Street Aware and Safer Streets Officers, the Community Wellbeing explained that these were different roles with different responsibilities.

66.7    In response to a further question from Councillor Wilson regarding the amount of time the Community Wellbeing team spent submitting bids, the Community Wellbeing Team Leader confirmed that bid writing did take up a significant amount of time when funding became available, as there was a need to be reactive when funding submissions opened.

66.8    The Chair asked whether it was the responsibility of the same team member to write funding bids. The Community Wellbeing Team Leader confirmed that it was her responsibility to put funding bids together, and that it was useful that the Council had a strong working relationship with the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner as they were helpful with endorsing funding bids where this was needed. She noted that maintaining good working relationships with partners was a key element of the role.

66.9    In response to a further question from the Chair as to whether the Community Wellbeing Team were well-resourced, the Community Wellbeing Team Leader confirmed that the team were in a better position following the recruitment of the Youth Engagement Lead and Safer Spaces Officer, however additional resource to assist with community safety work would be welcome.

66.10  Councillor Dee asked for further information around engagement with young people and how this took place. The Community Wellbeing Team Leader advised that the Youth Engagement Lead Officer was very experienced and had previous experience in running a youth engagement voluntary sector organisation. She confirmed that the Youth Engagement Lead Officer engaged with young people directly, and also closely engaged with Gloucester Academy.

66.11  Councillor Dee further asked whether youth engagement work involved discussions with parents and schools. The Community Wellbeing Team Leader noted that the Community Wellbeing Team were in the process of writing a Youth Violence Strategy and throughout this process, the Council would need to undertake more family-based work alongside working with partner agencies such as the County Council’s Social Care team.

66.12  Councillor Castle asked whether the Council had engaged with the University of Gloucestershire around its Safer Spaces work. The Community Wellbeing Team Leader advised that the Safer Spaces Lead Officer was currently working on a Communications Plan and that she would welcome suggestions from Members about which agencies should be included. She confirmed that representatives from the University of Gloucester and Hartpury University were already included in the NightSafe partnership group.

66.13 Councillor A. Chambers asked for further information regarding the Op Ebrius street drinking enforcement work, including where the figures were taken from, and which areas of Gloucester were included in the operation. The Community Wellbeing Team Leader confirmed that the operation took place over a 2-month period within the city centre.

66.14 In response to concerns raised by Councillor A. Chambers regarding anti-social behaviour in the city, the Community Wellbeing Team Leader noted that in her view, Op Ebrius was a success due to good partnership working between the Council and police teams and had brought about daily returns.

66.15 Councillor A. Chambers asked whether Op Ebrius was a one-off operation to which the Community Wellbeing Team Leader responded that it was initially intended to be a one off, however consideration was being given to repeating the operation in December.

66.16  In response to a further question from Councillor A. Chambers regarding sexual violence and prevalence of sexual offences in the city, the Community Wellbeing Team Leader pointed towards initiatives such as Ask Angela which encouraged women and girls to report instances of sexual violence. She noted that spikes in sexual violence could sometimes be caused by increased awareness, and it was therefore important to have strong engagement work in place to gather data for analysis.

66.17  Councillor Conder asked how often patrols took place in the Kingsholm and Barton and Tredworth areas. The Community Wellbeing Team Leader confirmed that Kingsholm was on the patrol map, and that the team had not seen displacement, however Sinope Street was still an issue. She further noted that the team were hoping to broaden the patrol area once the city centre situation had improved. The Community Wellbeing Team Leader advised Members that currently, City Protection Officers operated in the Business Improvement District (BID) area, however as the team had been successful in bidding for additional funding from the Home Office Safer Streets fund, this would be used to deploy Officers to work in hotspot areas.

66.18  In response to a question from Councillor A. Chambers, the Cabinet Member for Communities and Neighbourhoods noted that Gloucester was a working progress and safer than it used to be.

66.19  The Chair suggested that if Members had any further queries, it was open for them to ask questions at the upcoming Cabinet meeting.

          RESOLVED – That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee NOTE the update.