MEMBERS PRESENT : Chair Karen Leakey, Vice-Chair Pam Freegard, Secretary and Archivist Kevin Leakey,Treasurer John Freegard, Muhammad Chaudhry, Paul Izquierdo, Kate Johnson, Mohammed Khan, Cluniford Mason, Madge Sutton, Ros Timlin, Bob Walter, Robert Williams
ALSO PRESENT: Mark Walker, SBC Town Centre Locality Lead, PC Atkinson - Broad Street Area Beat Manager, PC Kuklinski - Vice Officer, Gavin Perry SBC Street Smart and County Road resident
APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE: Diana Banner, John Clark, Vi Clark, Kay Malko, Evelyn Mason, Rebecca McIntosh, Pat Townsend, Roy Townsend, PCSO Millarvie, PCSO Mervyn-Smith, Frances Barone - Town Centre Locality facilitator, Cllr. B. Wright, Cllr. J. Wright
CONFIRMATION OF THE NOTES: 04 March 2015 drop-in. These notes were confirmed and signed a true record. Proposed by John Freegard and seconded by Pam Freegard
MATTERS ARISING FROM THE MARCH 2015 MINUTES: None
NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICE TEAM : PC Atkinson and PC Kuklinski
NPT STATISTICS: 01 to 31 March 2015
Criminal damage – 6 (2014 – 5)
Assaults – 11 (2014 – 8) (4/11 incidents of domestic violence)
Theft and Handling – 13 (2014 – 13) (8/13 relate to thefts from commercial premises)
Drugs Offences – 5 (2014 – 8)
Dwelling Burglary – 0 (2014 – 3)
Robbery – 0 (2014 – 2)
NEIGHBOURHOOD POLICE TEAM REPORT – PC Atkinson
Year to date for March 2015 incidents of crime are at a stable level compared to March 2014 figures. Pleasingly we have had no incidents of dwelling burglary or robbery in March. Assaults have increased slightly, however it must be noted that several of these are repeat incidents involving the same persons and the same addresses.
In the 12 months up to March 2015 complaints of anti-social behaviour have reduced 1.9% compared to the 12 months up to March 2014. Although only a slight reduction this is still pleasing and equates to 353 calls relating to Anti-social behaviour compared to 360 in the previous year.
ASB
Wiltshire Police and Swindon Borough Council have received more complaints regarding the state of the County Ground Car Park area including issues with hedges, litter and boy racers frequenting the car park in the night time hours. Police patrols are taking place on a nightly basis and a joint partnership meeting is in the process of being arranged with affected residents, Swindon Town Football Club, Swindon Borough Council and Wiltshire Police. This will hopefully assist in presenting a long term solution to the mentioned issues.
Drugs
Following complaints from local residents around suspected drug use and Anti-social behaviour taking place in a flat on Manchester Road myself and colleagues attended and gained entry to this premises. Once inside we located a large quantity of Class A drugs (approximately £5000-£10000) and arrested 3 males for possession with intent to supply. The tenants in the address have been evicted and hopefully this will see the problems at the address cease. This again reflects that myself and my colleagues do listen to members of the public when intelligence is passed to us and will act upon it using the appropriate methods.
Op Salida
The Town Centre Policing Team ran Operation Salida in late February following the successful Op which took place in November 2014. Partnership agencies including Home Office Immigration, HMRC and SBC licensing and trading standards attended and 18 licensed premises and commercial businesses were visited in the Manchester Road area. All the premises which breached alcohol licensing conditions in November’s operation were re-visited and I’m pleased to say that the vast majority of them have cleaned up their act. During the Operation 3 persons were arrested for illegal entry into the United Kingdom, a large quantity of illegally imported tobacco was located and seized and only 4 premises breached alcohol licensing conditions compared to 12 in November.
Operation Salida is planned to run on a regular basis in the future.
Community Impact Policy
The CIP which I have discussed at previous meetings has been strongly fought for by Wiltshire Police. This would have provided us and Swindon Borough Council’s Licensing Department with a significant tool to contest alcohol licensing applications in areas troubled by alcohol related ASB including the Manchester Road area which is already saturated with off-licenses. The CIP would have allowed us to contest licenses on the grounds of the accumulative impact on an area as opposed to treating each license application on an individual basis. Unfortunately despite the hard work of Wiltshire Police and SBC Licensing, Swindon Councillors were unwilling to support or agree to consult on the Policy and as such this will unfortunately impact on our ability to successfully contest applications for future licences.
Vice
3 Kerb Crawlers dealt with for soliciting sex workers and added to the Change Course where they will have to pay £200 to attend. This money will be reinvested in the Broadgreen area. These kerb crawlers have been banned from the area and will be arrested if they return.
All sex workers who have been working recently are actively engaging with Nelson’s Trust Women’s Centre (ISIS) as well as alcohol and drug services. Through our patrols we are seeing a positive impact on the amount of time and frequency they are spending on the streets in the evenings. Although this is positive we are aware there is still work to be done.
Policing is an Intelligence driven business and we would urge you to contact Wiltshire Police on 101 if you have something you need to tell us. Or alternatively email Community Beat Manager PC 2410 Luke ATKINSON on luke.atkinson@wilthire.pnn.police.uk
The Community Impact Policy was discussed by the meeting, there were concerns that the SBC Licensing Committee had seen fit not to adopt this policy as it would have been of great benefit to the Broadgreen Area. Mark Walker said for the decision to be reconsidered, lots of evidence needed to be gathered from for example residents, Police, Health – GWH CCG and Street Smart. The Chair said it would be a good idea to try and meet with the Licensing Committee.
Mark Walker – SBC Locality Lead
Mark talked about residents becoming voluntary Street Champions and introduced Gavin Perry, an SBC Street Smart operative. Gavin has a regular street cleaning area in Broadgreen, from Fleming Way to Broad Street and works with SBC Environmental Enforcement Officer, Josie Lewis, to improve the area. As a resident, he also clears rubbish from the area on a voluntary basis and it was hoped to set up a regular service where SBC would collect rubbish at pre-arranged locations at set times, and to look at community litter picking/clean up days several times a month.
Concerns were raised about Street Champions and clean up days - several years ago a number of BSACC members volunteered as Street Watch volunteers, to keep an eye on their section of road and to clean up rubbish, but support from SBC had waned, leading to most residents dropping out of the scheme, and at a previous clean up day, rubbish was left around the area over a weekend, when the SBC did not collect it the same day, as agreed. It was also disheartening when residents had volunteered for many hours on clean up days, only to see other people being irresponsible with the disposal of their rubbish, almost immediately after the area ad been cleared.
Concerns were also raised about the need to fill in an application form to be a Street Champion, Mark explained this was to do with insurance and also if training was needed.
As part of community involvement, Mark offered litter picking equipment, gloves, goggles bags etc, that could be booked in and out at the Broadgreen Centre, for residents to use. Robert and Bob took up the offer.
CORRESPONDENCE and PLANNING
SENT – None
RECEIVED – BSACC Insurance renewal reminder
Notification of adoption of proposals for the replacement of the Local Plan
PLANNING
S/15/0413 - 142 Manchester Road SN1 2AF - Change of use from shop (Class A1) to cafe (Class A3) - Application Pending Consideration - Case Officer - Mrs Janet Busby
S/15/0473 - 139 Broad Street SN1 2DP - Change of use of part of ground floor from residential (Class C3) to travel agents (Class A1) - Application Pending Consideration - Case Officer - Mr Tom Buxton
S/14/1807 - R & H Electric Ltd. Unit 3-8 Transfer Bridge Industrial Estate, SN1 2EL - Change of use of ground floor storage area (Class B8) to Class D2 (Assembly & Leisure). - Application Granted - Case Officer - Miss Jane Rodens
S/PRIORC/15/0166 - Signal Point Station Road, SN1 1UY - Prior Approval Notification for the change of use of part of ground and first floors and floors two to twelve from offices (class B1(a)) to residential use (class C3) (126no. Flats) - Prior approval not required - Case Officer - Mrs Janet Busby
TREASURERS REPORT - to 01 April 2015: John Freegard
The monthly Treasurers report was distributed to Members present
Proposed Ros Timlin - Seconded Muhammad Chaudhry
The following issues and points were raised, discussed and reported
A van parked in front of the shop at 21 Broad Street was being used to store rubbish in and the parking permit on the van was for another vehicle.
Drain cleaning - Mark said there had been a program to automatically clean drains every 5 years but it was now carried out when a drain was reported as blocked.
Rubbish in alleyways and mechanical cleaning of alleyways.
The cost of paying for the Borough to remove large articles of waste – prohibitively expensive and black bin-bags of rubbish would not be taken, encouraging fly-tipping.
The state of the stone sets in the Streets for Living section of Gladstone Street – many were no longer fixed in place and were loose and some areas were sinking.
Coping stones on planters in Gladstone Street had been pushed off.
Pot holes in Manchester Road.
Reduction in SBC Localities from 7 to 5.
Dangerous structure – wall in Rosebery Street alley, Fleming Way end and a garage door in the alleyway on the south side of Gooch Street.
Community garden project at the Broadgreen Centre – proposals and costs from Wiltshire Wildlife given out to Members.
Please also report problems directly to SBC Street Smart – tel: 01793 445501
Email: streetsmart@swindon.gov.uk
It was decided that the May meeting would be held between 7.45 and 7.20pm followed by a meeting to discuss the Community Garden proposals and the future direction of the Community Council.
Meeting closed – 8.30pm
