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The Crime and Disorder Act came into law in 1998 and
its aim was to improve community safety
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Local Authorities administrated this law and made
safety happen. Technically Torridge and
North Devon were two Crime Safety Partnerships but were working
together as one
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The Partnership met as a wider group
quarterly. The other partners who met
were the Police, Fire authority, Northern Devon Healthcare Trust,
Local Authorities, elected Members, representatives from Domestic
Abuse, drug and alcohol services
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The Partnership had a duty to consider national
issues such as County Lines and Modern Day Slavery along with local
issues
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Funding of the Partnership was due to change next
year, 2021, whereby bids would have to be made for each area of
concern to be tackled
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There had been many hurdles during the last year
such as Covid-19, and relocating the police station but Crime
levels were down by 13%, whereas nationally this figure was a 5%
drop
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The number of drug trafficking and weapons crimes
had increased. The positive of this was
that more criminals were being caught and the Police were being
more pro-active
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Hate crime had also increased and was a worrying
trend
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The increased anti-social behaviour levels were due
to the Covid-19 restrictions
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The Torridge and North Devon area remained one of
the safest places to live
Dean Smith, Community Safety
Lead Officer and Anti-Social Behaviour Lead for Torridge District
Council (TDC) then addressed the
Sub-Committee to give a Community Safety Partnership
update.
The Sub-Committee received the
following updates:
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TDC worked closely with its partners, 1-2 hour training sessions
were given on any rising issues.
Unfortunately since March 2020 these sessions had been suspended
due to the Covid-19 restrictions.
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Online sessions were hoped to resume soon with a
session having been successfully delivered recently on issues
around cyber safety and scams
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2021 would see the launch of a virtual platform
programme
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Mediation services were used frequently by
colleagues in the Environmental Health team who were dealing with
increased neighbour disputes
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Crime prevention tools due to close working with the
local Police
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Road safety was recognised as an emerging threat and
attendance at regular meetings on Road Safety were
ongoing
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Support of the operation SNAP, which allowed members
of the public to upload dash cam footage to help tackle dangerous
driving on the roads
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Contributed to the Honest Truth scheme which relayed
road safety messages
The Sub-Committee then heard
from Police Sergeant Noel Bourke, based at the North Devon Council
(NDC) offices and who covered Torridge
and North Devon.
The following updates were
given:
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There were four areas of work he was involved with
and these were:
(1)
County Lines
(2)
Modern Slavery
(3)
Safer Towns
(4)
Mental Health
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There had been an increase in drug activity coming
into the area and the Police relied on local intelligence from the
Community as well as elected Members
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Intelligence gained from the gangs themselves was
that North Devon was a really hard area to deliver drugs to and was
not seen as an attractive option. This
intelligence gained was then fed back to Liverpool and London
Police forces
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Moving forward bite size training on County Lines
was to be delivered in 2021 and all Members were encouraged to join
a session
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Modern Day Slavery was a problem in North
Devon. The businesses known for this
type of activity were monitored, these included nail bars, car
washes, and agricultural setting. The
numbers were very small in the area
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Torridge, Barnstaple and Ilfracombe had all been
successful in a bid for funding to help tackle issues around
homelessness. The £5,000 funding
had been used for outreach services which were offering the
homeless housing advice, and medical advice. The homeless were being encouraged to take up
these services as if they chose not to and were to appear in court
this could affect their court hearing
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Mental Health services had helped 12 people across
North Devon and Torridge. Medication
was offered which resulted in reduced actions taken by the people
suffering with mental health issues. A
£60,000 saving had been achieved by working with the mental
health services by reducing demand on Police time
Tim Birtwisle, Service Lead
Community Safety Partnership Officer/Harm Risk Officer for North
Devon Council (NDC) addressed the Sub-
Committee.
The Sub-Committee heard the
following updates:
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The following three areas of work had been
undertaken this past year:
(1)
Safer Summer Scheme
(2)
Adolescent Safety Framework
(3)
Trauma Informed Conference
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The Office of the Police Crime Commissioner had
offered funding to promote safety for visitors to the area over the
summer months. The CSP had been successful in its bid for funding and
were able to employ Marshalls at the beaches in Croyde, and Woolacombe
for North Devon and at Westward Ho!
for Torridge. This was a very positive experience and worked
well
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The Adolescent Safety Framework was designed and run
by the Child social services. It was
aimed at protecting children at risks from external factors as
identified by the social services team.
Incidents that had occurred at certain areas in communities such as
parks
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The Trauma Informed Conference was held in January
2020 at Filleigh Village
Hall. It was a very well attended event
with over 150 delegates
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The purpose of the event was to look at how
traumatic events could affect young people and how help could be
offered to those who had had a traumatic life
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A wide array of agencies were represented at the
event
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Four outstanding presentations were given, one
included the personal recount from someone who had experienced a
traumatic childhood
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Unfortunately since the conference in January 2020
the work had come to a standstill due to the Covid-19
restrictions
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It was hoped Practitioners would be given training
to help those affected by trauma
Toby Davies added that with the
changes to funding coming next year 2021 it would be difficult to
obtain funding. The trauma informed
approach was a high intensity resource but to be able to address
peoples underlying issues would result in them stop keep coming
back for help. The CSP approach next year would focus more on positive
talk and celebrate and promote the good work carried out by the
partnership.
In response to various
questions the CSP representatives gave
the following replies:
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Crime in rural areas was a known issue and there was
a dedicated team working on prevention of crime and promoting the
help available. An invite would be
extended to Members to get involved helping provide local
intelligence
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Funding was hoped to be available to extend the
street Marshalls to other areas such as Braunton who had suffered rising levels of
anti-social behaviours
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Education was the key to tackling scammers getting
the message out to the members of the community was
everyone’s job. It was an
international problem with the people doing the targeting not being
based in the UK
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The new anti-social behaviour powers adopted by
North Devon Council meant officers would have more powers to lower
the levels of anti-social behaviours.
Recent knife attacks in Barnstaple were drug related. The Anti-Social Behaviour steering group was still
in its infancy but early findings suggested there was an increase
in anti-social behaviours during the summer months
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Mental health issues did have a big impact on the
work carried out by the CSP. Resources such as
street cafes acting as safe havens for people who might be in
distress helped but the impact of job losses and mental health
issues this might increase demand for help. The CSP were working
hard with partners
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Work was being carried out by the Suicidal Strategic
Group to refresh the areas to get behind to help reduce risk
areas
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If issues regarding youth anti-social behaviour was
not being addressed then contacting the Local Authority to raise
the concerns would enable them to divert the outreach programmes to
the specified areas of concern
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A Police mini cadet programme was being rolled out
in schools with a 6 week programme to start in January
2021. This was to the four schools who
had responded
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The trauma informed programme would help understand
the reasons people make the choices they do in regards to drug
misuse. This would in turn lead to the
reduction in numbers of people choosing this life path in the
future
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