Broadgreen Tasking meeting minutes 27th May 2009

Broadgreen Tasking Group meeting minutes
1. Welcome and introductions.
2. Apologies for absence.
Approve minutes from meeting 27/05/09
Matters Arising from minutes 27/05/09

The Police Team have undertaken survey’s with residents and have 3 new priorities:

· LITTER
Hi Visibility patrols to identify and deal with offenders and to target litter hotspots.
· SPEEDING - BROAD STREET
Partnership working between Police, Highways, Fire and residents. Police to commence enforcement operations. Fire to arrange road safety roadshow to raise awareness of the dangers of speed.
· ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR - ALLEYWAYS REAR MANCHESTER
Partnership working with Police, Licensing Dept, Health Care and Community Safety. Police to enforce Alcohol Free Zone .

COMMUNITY ISSUES:
o Parking Issues
o Youth report
o STFC report
o HIMO report
o Update on Broadgreen Community Plan
. Report back on BG Breakfast club/St Lukes Church
. Update on Community Bridge Building

Purpose of the meeting
To work within the priorities established at the community engagement event
To follow up and monitor agreed tasks
To establish further tasks that relate to the priorities
Accuracy of minutes and specific matters arising not on the Agenda

Broadgreen Neighbourhood Tasking Group

Wednesday 27th May 2009

Attending
PC Michael Diffin BG NPT Beat Manager
SGT Kate Stalder NPT SGT
Karen Leakey Chair BG NTG/BSACC
John Taylor Volunteer Community Worker
Derique Montaut Ward Councillor
Graham Weller Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service
Richard Palacio SBC Environmental Enforcement
Sue D’amico DIP @ Police Station
Angus Macpherson Broadgreen breakfast club
Bob Johnson SBC Community Facilities

Apologies for absence:
David Dewart SBC Forward Planning Officer
Doug Imrie Community Sports Coach
Chris Hunt SBC Community Manager
PC Sophia McIntyre Swindon Police
Mr M Ali Manchester Road Mosque
James Wallin Swindon Advertiser
John Phillips BSACC Officer
Emily Edwards DHI
Jim Allmark Open Hands Fellowship
PC Q Sheikh Community Engagement Team
John Bishop St Lukes Church
Carol Heneghan New Swindon Co
Ged Cassell SBC Head Learning and Engagement
Liz Vincent St Joseph’s School
Ray Read SBC Parking Department
Lindsay Poole SBC Youth Worker
Monsoor Khan Broad Street Mosque

1. Approve minutes of the last meeting (27/05/09)
2. Matters arising from the previous minutes (27/05/09)

PRIORITY 1: LITTER/ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Action: Hi Visibility patrols to identify and deal with offenders and to target litter hotspots.
Update, report and identify ongoing tasks:

MD: There is difficulty between private and public land. Back alley of Salisbury
Street is a lot cleaner. Alcohol bottles and cans – especially at the rear of 131 Manchester Road.
RP: The Off license has changed ownership recently. SBC have put pressure on owners and the problem has eased.
MD: Alexandra Rd was bad – warrant served on an address – SBC assisted clearing rubbish, dogs were also found at the address. 19 Alfred St 20 bin bags were found in the rear garden.
RP: More than happy to deal with rubbish in people’s back gardens. SBC do own
Most of the back alleyways – problems occur when the fence/garage area at the rear finish short of the alleyway – people then use this small area to fly tip.
SBC cannot clear this rubbish, as it is on private land.
SBC took away a washing machine a while ago – and it should not have been taken away.
We give a 21 day notice to take rubbish away – a notice is put onto the rubbish, which makes it clear to the community that SBC will clear the rubbish away leading to the messy area being added to.
SBC approach: 1- Establish who put the rubbish there – ownership and confront those people. 2- If we cannot find the person – go back to the owner of the land.
We have sought to make progress – SBC need to find finance – we could then clear the rubbish directly and the propitiators could be fined. Sadly this problem then goes back to the landowner.
Elderly people are being caught out, because of the fence ending short of the end of the garden – people are dumping rubbish on their land.
We have had a lot of success clearing the alleyways – using cameras catching people fly tipping. We have had 6 prosecutions since Christmas – with weighty fines. Sacks and bin bags dumped in alleyways we have issued 20 + FPN.
We need a clear alleyway to begin with – for this we need more funding – then we could put CCTV into the alleyway. A week ago I would have said our efforts were working – my Officers say the alley by Alexandra Road is bad again. This was one of the prosecutions.
MD: If SBC have a letter for people to sign to waive ownership of the rubbish –we would be happy to do this.
RP: SBC will not pay for the removal of rubbish. If we remove rubbish free of charge this would have a knock on effect for every private alleyway in the Borough. 99% of people have ownership on their deeds this would then mean a bill would be served on all addresses with alleyways.
MD: Big problem is with the transient community – can we direct a campaign at landlords?
RP: We have done this – at a meeting I attended of the Landlords Assoc. We are looking at a series of steps – SBC will support the landlord then use enforcement on tenants to remove rubbish – or bill the tenants for removal.
MD: Previously 20-30 years ago the homes here were small family homes – now many homes have 12 + people residing in them.
RP: We do give out extra bins if people have too many black sacks etc, we will ask them to provide info on how many people live there etc.
My usual report, as follows:
There have been:
5 notices
4 gardens – 1 in default
14 cases – request to remove rubbish
JT: The situation is very much improved by RP and his team. The difficulty
Is what works? Everything with this problem is reactive and SBC want to
be proactive. RP and his team have been reactive. The alleyways in the
Streets for Living project area have lights and yellow lines in. The curtilage
area behind the launderette is a problem. The long-term answer is lighting and yellow lines in the alleyways.
Just returned from Tenerife – they have long-term investment and operate underground disposal like in Old Town (by the COOP).
In Hilversum the Streets for Living partner project area – the streets had this and the streets were spotless. The domestic rubbish went to the underground waste disposal.
DM: Raised this with SBC – this would be in the very long term.
JT: The council could be pro-active – each residential area could have 4/5 wheelie skips that are emptied every night.
RP: Would run into SBC refuse capacity – including recycling and reduced landfill. We have a limited capacity of rubbish we are able to send to landfill. SBC will supply more recycling boxes – need burden of proof to do this.
JT: Public need to know they can have more recycling bins – need to engage in public education. Perhaps 4/5 skips could be put into a pilot area?
RP: Jackie Moyles or Ian Young would be the people to ask.
MD: Education programme would be good – certain areas are a problem.
RP: We have had photo’s of people from outside of the borough put into the Advertiser who were prosecuted on Friday.
AM: When the local priorities are set for each area it would be good to let the Clerk of Justice know what they are – the penalties given out to offenders could then be higher.
RP: had a meeting about 5 previous cases – they had good results but with the sixth case the Borough Solicitor needed to be better primed with information.
AM: The Magistrate will always look to the Clerk for advice.

PRIORITY 2: Speeding
Update, report and identify ongoing tasks:
Action: Work between: Police/Highways/Fire and residents.

MD: The camera safety unit has been in the area – speeding is not a problem in the area. The average speed a car is travelling down Broad Street was 23mph.
At the BSACC meeting a number of roads were ID’d. There are no funds and all evidence shows that speeding is a perception. The ASB driving Police Team have been here and during a 10 day exercise there was no problem.
Because of the way cars are parked in Broad Street it is very difficult to pick up speed.
MD/KL work with GW & Fire Brigade to do a display perhaps on a Wednesday evening during youth club.
GW: We had this exercise a couple of years ago.
JT: It was very effective.
MD: Could follow up with a visit to the youth club.
AM: Speeding is a priority in all Policing areas.
JT: We have a campaign called 20 is plenty.
MD: The roads here are not long enough to enforce. Need traffic calming measures.

PRIORITY 3: ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR - ALLEYWAYS REAR MANCHESTER Rd
Action: Work between: Police/Licensing Dept/Health/Community Safety
Update, report and identify ongoing tasks:

MD: This is a long-term problem. We have had 45 alcohol seizures and 1 person was reported. We have issued letters to all licensed premises by the crime disorder team. Abbeys shop has been caught selling alcohol to intoxicated people. The licensing department need a lot of evidence. CCTV needs to be watching for days – people are also encouraging other people to buy drink and passing it on. This is also difficult to prove. On the enforcement side we are struggling. We have encouraged the traders to use different bags – 1 went to the cash and carry and got different bags – indications are that Abbeys is the main offender. The problems associated with alcohol including the rubbish left in alleyways are adding to the other problems. CCTV works well and moves the drunks along. Community safety will put up covert CCTV signs in the alleyways. People have asked for dummy CCTV cameras but one council is being sued because of these cameras. The education of people drinking is a problem. The shops can change hands every 12 months due to tax reasons – who do we target? We will keep up enforcement and seizing alcohol. In 6 weeks 40/50 alcohol seizures have taken place – this is more than in the Town Centre.
AM: PCT need to be involved – drinking is a medical problem.
MD: There are a lot of Goan men drinking in the community. Central Sector Padre based at St Luke’s is working with the Goan community and we are working at St Joseph’s CC College to educate people. We could patrol the area and show a united front: Police/Padre and other ‘Leaders’.

OTHER BUSINESS:
MD: The newsletter is changing – we are in partnership with the community safety department - they have funding and more experience. Every quarter we will use ‘offenders’ doing community payback to do a letter drop in the area, Partner agencies can also give out information on here. Please send info to Jane Dudley. At the end of the month the first draft will be sent out. BSACC can also put information onto there. The newsletter will be more corporate and work with partner agencies – if this works it may become force wide. Jane has agreed to do Broadgreen. Because Broadgreen is a large varied community the Fire Dept. could advertise their smoke alarm campaign/Health – dangers of drinking/swine flu etc. Surveys and leaflets could also be dropped.
SD: Any feedback on OP Dobbin?
MD: Asked for figures and what the impact of Op Dobbin has been.
SD: DIP worker were out 7-3am and engaged with 4 sex workers. Most are in treatment and guided to DHI.
MD: Feedback at next meeting.
SD: There are 2 alcohol workers working as a pilot in the Police Station: Shaun Manual – also contact: Tony and Steve at THL.

There was a discussion about the way the Tasking Group is running and who should/should not be invited. KL: To speak to Insp. Lynch/DCI Capstick

AM: The strength of the group is the breadth of agencies here working together.
The Police Authority held this group up as a good model when they had their
Inspection recently. One to one engagement solves problems.
MD: Want to streamline the group down.
AM: Agencies can be required everywhere.
SD: It is a useful group and the information about Broadgreen is really useful to our work.
JT: These meetings are very powerful, a resident was invited from Broad Street to talk about her problems – and outlined the impact of the challenges that were needed to solve her problems.
AM: The Tasking is changing the name to PACT – ‘Partner and Community Together’. The Police have no funding for meetings – the Police are 1 of 5 partners within these groups.
DM: The Community engagement at BSACC meetings is very effective – the problems then come to this group to solve – which gives it its strength. This is a model to go across Swindon of how people should operate. The Fire Authority sees this as a good model. It is successful in a quiet way.

YOUTH REPORT, STFC REPORT, HIMO REPORT, PARKING, HAJI’S GARAGE UPDATE: No report

FIRE UPDATE

GW: The speeding – safe drive/stay alive would be good to work with the young people in Broadgreen.
In Swindon during September/October there will be an opportunity for the group to attend.
Will show group DVD of Safe drive campaign in the near future.

There is money to improve the meeting room in the near future.
SD: Asked if the fire service would like some information posters for the walls?
GW: They would be very welcome. Working with the careers in Wood Street – GW gave out information. Perhaps they can come and talk to the group in the future.

BROADGREEN COMMUNITY PLAN

JT: Progress on the BGCP 2009-2012. Are identifying the aspirations of the residents and putting into one document – to put pressure onto the Borough Council for their Budget decisions in December. Many of the things that will go into the plan will take time. To broaden the information that goes into the plan – we are out-reaching to St Josephs and Churchfields schools. St Josephs have sent back 61 youth returns so far. The Streets for Living youth survey only had 27 replies in total.
There have been 75 replies to the BG CP adult survey so far. This is on top of the work the community completed with Holly Huber over the previous 12 months.


ST LUKES/BROADGREEN BREAKFAST CLUB


Meeting closed at 11.50am