Agenda and minutes

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Contact: Democratic Services 01732 227199  Email: democratic.services@sevenoaks.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Appointment of Chairman

Minutes:

Resolved: That Cllr. Hogarth be appointed as Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing municipal year.

 

 (Cllr. Hogarth in the Chair)

 

2.

Appointment of Vice Chairman

Minutes:

Resolved: That Cllr. Maskell be appointed as Vice Chairman of the Committee for the ensuing municipal year.

 

 

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 47 KB

To agree the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 17 March 2016,  as a correct record.

Minutes:

Resolved:  That the minutes of the meeting held on 11 February 2016, be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

 

4.

Declarations of Interest

Any interests not already registered

Minutes:

No additional declarations of interest were made.

CHANGE IN AGENDA ITEM ORDER

With the agreement of Committee, the Chairman brought forward consideration of agenda items 9 and 8 (Minutes 5 and 6 respectively).

 

 

5.

Community Safety Annual Report pdf icon PDF 26 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Community Safety Manager presented a report which looked at the work of the Community Safety Partnership from April 2015 – March 2016, taking into account all aspects of the Partnership reflecting on crime trends, and Community Safety Unit (CSU) and successes.  Members also received a presentation.

 

The Chairman advised that there were individual ward related statistics and encouraged Members to seek them from the Community Safety Manager.

 

Resolved:  That the report be noted.

6.

Policing over the past year- Presentation by Chief Inspector Roscoe Walford pdf icon PDF 666 KB

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Chief Inspector Roscoe Walford Members from whom Members’ received a presentation. 

 

Members took the opportunity to ask questions.  In response, CI Walford advised that he did not believe the District was too lax in its licensing hours; if there were a major firearm incident local Officers would be first to the scene with Firearms Officers there within 25/30 minutes; and more consideration was being given to giving PCSOs more powers, however this was problematical as they were not Police Offices and any new powers would require more training.  A Member commented that there was a perception that there was no point in reporting crimes such as driving whilst on a mobile phone, therefore reported crime statistics would go down.  The Chief inspector advised that they could only prioritise with the resources they had and added that the community needed to be engaged to help prevent opportunities for crime.  With regards to speed check feedback he would be tasking his new Inspector to take this on.  Also in response to questions he reported that Cyber Crime was a big issue and there would be more investment in online fraud investigation and there would be more education and awareness campaigns.

 

In challenging and rapidly changing times he was asked what the greatest progress and job satisfaction had been so far, to which he responded  - working smarter, new processes and generally the staff motivation was to ‘catch the bad guys’.  Staff wanted to do the best they could for their area and do the right thing.  He was proud that Sevenoaks had the lowest recorded anti social behaviour in the county and relatively low crime levels.

 

The Chairman thanked CI Walford on behalf of the Committee for attending and extended thanks to him and all his staff for the work they did.

 

7.

Actions from Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 16 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The actions were noted.

Members commented on the information provided by the Sevenoaks District Accommodation Forum.

In relation to Action 2 the Vice Chairman added that it was about addressing the skills gap and enabling businesses to strive and thrive.  Data had been gathered and the next step was to start developing a strategy for closing the gap. The issue was trying to marry up the large proportion of young people who had less than level 1 education, and businesses finding themselves with a skills shortage and unable to recruit.  Local training providers were not necessarily providing the necessary training needs so the project would be investigating other providers.

 

8.

Update from Portfolio Holder

Minutes:

The Portfolio Holder and Chairman, reported that he had recently held a ‘Tourism breakfast’ , a successful networking event.  One fresh idea arising from it was investigating turning Taxi drivers into local tourism ambassadors.

 

He reported that he had visited a SupaJam Education Music and Media project in Swanley, which was being carried out in an unused building at the Orchard Academy.  It was unique to the District, a partnership between an independent business and Officers, offered to seriously disadvantaged  people who were engaged through music and encouraged to create business plans etc which therefore motivated them to improve their basic numeracy and literacy skills. 

 

He advised that since taking up the Portfolio he had had themes to his approach starting with ‘support, enable, get out of the way’, followed by ‘what’s the scale of your ambition’ and ‘before and after’.  These were cumulative and he was now introducing a new one ‘looking outward’ which would be looking at encouraging schemes such as the Supajam one.

 

He further welcomed Cllr. McGarvey as a new Deputy Portfolio Holder and thanked Cllr Abraham for his previous work as Deputy and congratulated  him on his new position as Vice Chairman of the Council.

9.

Referrals from Cabinet or the Audit Committee

Minutes:

There were none.

10.

Emergency Plan Update pdf icon PDF 35 KB

Minutes:

The Head of Parking and Surveying presented a report which report provided an update on current Emergency Planning practises and procedures.  The Council has statutory responsibilities under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 as a Category 1 responder, along with the ‘Blue Light’ emergency services, Kent County Council, the Environment Agency and the NHS.  The District Council‘s main responsibilities are to provide humanitarian  assistance during any event or evacuation, immediate care and longer term housing needs whilst aiding recovery, and throughout any event assisting with multi agency response, sharing information and mutual aid.

 

In response to a question, as to whether there was a specific out of hours contact protocol, Members were advised that they should just ring the main switchboard which was manned out of hours by the CCTV Control Room.

 

Resolved:  That the report be noted.

11.

Business Continuity Update pdf icon PDF 36 KB

Minutes:

The Head of Parking and Surveying presented a report which provided an update on current Business Continuity practises and procedures.

 

Resolved:  That the report be noted.

12.

Work Plan pdf icon PDF 14 KB

Minutes:

The work plan was noted.

 

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