Agenda item

To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the last meeting.

53.1           Members received an update from Councillor Rob Garnham, the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel, on matters discussed at the last meeting of the Panel held on 8 November 2017.

53.2           Councillor Garnham advised that the Chief Executive’s report had acknowledged that, whilst crime was rising, Gloucestershire was performing well in comparison with the areas in its “Most Similar Group” of forces – Tewkesbury was fourth out of 15 compared to Cheltenham in tenth position.  It was noted that, whilst there was a lot of fear of crime in the Cotswolds, the crime rate in that area was almost 2.5 times lower than the national average.  The Police and Crime Commissioner had provided reassurance that regular “holding to account” meetings were held.  The report had also covered the issues surrounding Her Majesty’s Courts in Cheltenham and Gloucester, in particular the poor state of the buildings and the distressing situation whereby victims and those giving evidence had to be in close proximity to alleged offenders.  He advised that work was ongoing to see if land at Waterwells would be a suitable site for a single court to serve the county.  Concern had been raised about public transport and assurance had been given that this would be investigated.  The shortage of Independent Custody Visitors (ICVs) was highlighted as a concern, particularly as attendance figures had shown that there were no visits when the Police were most under pressure i.e. on Friday and Saturday nights.  Chief Constable recruitment was ongoing and the Police and Crime Panel intended to hold its statutory confirmatory meeting on 18 December.

53.3           The Panel had received an update on child protection following Gloucestershire’s poor report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC).  ACC Moss had now taken responsibility for child protection and a Public Protection Service Delivery Board had been set-up which included the heads of all departments across the constabulary.  HMIC had carried out an effectiveness inspection and the report would be published in February 2018. 

53.4           Councillor Garnham advised that there had been little comment on the Police and Crime Commissioner’s annual report, which had been deferred from the last meeting, and the Panel had also received the quarterly Police and Crime Panel priorities highlight report. Superintendent Rob Priddy had given an update on the restructuring of the force control room which included new recruitment, changes to shift patterns and triaging of calls.  It was noted that just under 7,000 999 calls had been received in August 2017; over 23,000 101 calls - 5% of which were actually Grade 1 incidents (999 calls) - and 4,500 emails were received each month.  The same number of staff had been engaged in the control room since 2014 but demand had increased significantly.  The Police and Crime Commissioner had updated the Panel on “The Compassionate Approach” which set out his expectations in terms of how the Police and partners dealt with environmental matters and included a “root and branch review of the environmental footprint”.  It was noted that there were now seven electric vehicles in the fleet.  On the subject of rural crime, the Police and Crime Commissioner had acknowledged that, whilst the amount of rural crime was low, the impact of such crime was high.

53.5           Councillor Garnham went on to indicate that he had recently been asked to chair the annual conference of Police and Crime Panels which had been held at Warwick University Business School and was attended by over 130 delegates.  One agenda item had covered the formation of a national body for Police and Crime Panels and that was being explored under the remit of the Local Government Association as a special interest group.  The idea of Police force mergers was also mentioned with specific reference to the recent proposal of Devon and Cornwall merging with Dorset.  Councillor Garnham also mentioned the fact that, in some forces, a Superintendent could be in charge of over 700 officers, whilst in Gloucestershire there was a Chief Constable, a Deputy Chief Constable and two Assistant Chief Constables in charge of 1,065 officers.

53.6           A Member raised the issue of mounted Police in Gloucestershire and Councillor Garnham confirmed this had been discussed at several Police and Crime Panel meetings where the Police and Crime Commissioner had highlighted the benefits of having a mounted capability in the constabulary.  At a recent meeting, the Commissioner had been questioned as to why he had paid £60,000 for a second-hand horsebox from Avon and Somerset Constabulary.  Another Member queried whether Independent Custody Visitors were able to claim travel expenses to Waterwells and Councillor Garnham indicated that he thought that would be the case but undertook to confirm this following the meeting.

53.7           The Chair thanked the Council’s representative for his presentation and indicated that the update would be circulated to Members via email following the meeting.  It was

RESOLVED          That the feedback from the last meeting of the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel be NOTED.