Agenda item
SCRUTINY SPOTLIGHT
The Lead Member for Cleaner, Safer, Greener Councillor Abdal Ullah, will attend to report on his portfolio.
(Time allocated – 45 minutes)
Minutes:
The Chair welcomed Mr John Biggs, Metropolitan Police Authority Link Member, to the meeting, commenting that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee now had responsibility for scrutinising the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, and Mr Biggs could add a regional perspective to this work. The Chair considered it both important and good practice to explore how the working relationship between the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership, the Metropolitan Police Authority and the Police Community Consultative Group could be improved. In particular he saw a key role for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in facilitating a regular “Community Question Time”.
The Chair also welcomed Mr Paul Rickett, Borough Commander (Metropolitan Police), to the meeting.
Councillor Abdal Ullah, Lead Member Cleaner, Safer, Greener, then gave a presentation on the key issues, successes and challenges arising from his portfolio; and Officers from the Communities, Localities and Culture Directorate supplemented this with aspects of detail. The presentation focused on the following points:
Safer
· Community Safety
o Reduced crime Tower Hamlets over 5 successive years.
o Recent praise from the Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority/ Deputy Mayor (Mr Monkhouse) for the exemplary performance of Tower Hamlets in relation to crime reduction.
o Successful introduction of Tower Hamlets Environmental Officers (THEOs).
o A Reducing Reoffending Programme recognised nationally for its best practice and given a Beacon Award.
o Successful introduction of 8 new drug outreach workers.
o Continuation of the “Dealer a Day” initiative with its significant impact on drug dealing, with 440 arrests to date.
· Road Safety
o 100 percent coverage of schools with School Travel Plans.
o Road safety schemes and introduction of more reduced vehicle speed zones targeted at accident hotspots.
o New higher visibility vehicle activated speed signs to raise driver awareness of speed.
· Transport
· Partnership working to improve the Docklands Light Railway to a 3 car service.
· Introduction of a bus service linking the Isle of Dogs to Chrisp Street Market free of charge for the elderly.
· Residents could now renew their permits at any Council One Stop Shop improving access to the service.
· Late night enforcement of parking regulations had been increased to deal with problem areas. CCTV surveillance for parking violations had also commenced in Brick Lane in late 2008. It was noted this had been suspended pending a review of the parking enforcement function.
· The importance of recognising the parameters of the Council’s responsibilities and residents taking up issues with the appropriate Registered Social Landlords such as Poplar HARCA regarding streets and spaces managed by them.
· Trading Standards & Environmental Health
o Successful and pending enforcement action/ prosecutions and premises closures undertaken relating to illegal trading, food safety, health and safety. A successful food safety event at the Royal Mint also with healthy options being examined by local restaurants was highlighted.
o Council initiative to tackle illegal cabs and touting.
Cleaner
· Fantastic work to remove graffiti, with an additional £175, 000 invested in two extra graffiti teams (doubling the total, with 3 teams working in the day and 1 at night). The challenge in this area was acknowledged however with reference to “an explosion” of graffiti in the west of the Borough primarily due to the promotion of “graffiti days” by certain private initiatives.
· Investment in the cleansing of Brick Lane with a daily enforcement sweep to address fly tipping and supplement the four collections now programmed during the day.
· Partnership working with Transport for London to improve the cleanliness of the A13 to improve perceptions of this gateway to the borough
· Annual Residents Survey had shown a significant improvement in perception of street cleaning since 2007/8, and was now above the London average.
· Improved partnership/ joined up working focussed on meeting inspection targets driven forward by the Public Realm Sub Group of the Great Place to Live Community Plan Delivery Group within the Local Strategic Partnership.
· A Public Realm Strategy promoting joined up working, with particular elements to address fly posting and fly tipping including closer linkage enforcement and surveillance.
Greener
· Recycling
o Recycling was now more comprehensive and the cumulative recycling rate much improved as a result of an acceleration programme. The target for 2007/8 of 19 percent had been exceeded the direction of travel was one of continued improvement, and in July 2009 a recycling rate of 24 percent was recorded. The achievement was one to be proud of. Contributory factors included the success of the “Mr Robot” campaign in the local Community and the contribution of partners such as Tower Hamlets Homes and the Poplar HARCA.
o The food waste recycling service had been successfully rolled out in September 2008 to a 19,000 of high and low rise properties and a further roll out to 3000 properties would take place in October 2009.
o School food waste recycling had been introduced and now covered all secondary schools; this had contributed to the improvement in the aggregate recycling rate.
o Recycling from street cleansing collections had been successfully introduced for example at Whitechapel Market.
o The “We Can Recycle More” campaign was to receive an industry wide award.
· Parks / Open Spaces
o The extensive parks improvement programme already in place with 26 parks with £4.5 million being invested over two years.
o The successful development/ improvement of outdoor play spaces and adventure playgrounds with £3 million of funding, through the Path Playfinder Programme.
o Continued development of the Victoria Park Masterplan with consultation underway to inform the bid for Heritage Lottery Funding. Approximately £10m would be invested over the next 3 years. This “Jewel in the Crown” would need more extensive advertisement.
o Six parks retained their Green Flag status in 2009 and the Borough retained its Silver award for the London in Bloom competition
Crime
Mr Paul Rickett, Borough Commander, informed the Committee that Tower Hamlets was seeing a 6th successive year in crime reduction including violence, robbery, burglary. There had been a 26 percent reduction in serious crime in Tower Hamlets when measured against the same period the previous year. This contrasted with the general trend across London, for example a 10 percent rise in burglaries in the rest of London with a 10 percent reduction in Tower Hamlets. However there had been some small rises in the level of some offences for example youth offending, but this was primarily due to re-categorisation offences. The direction of travel in Tower Hamlets was good and it was one of two London Boroughs meeting or exceeding its targets for crime. However reductions in crime were not of the same scale as the previous year, for example a 30 per cent reduction in burglary last year; and it was anticipated that the current level of reduction might be eroded by the impact of the recession on individual financial wellbeing and the acknowledged linkage of this to rises in crime.
Members of Overview and Scrutiny Committee then posed a series of detailed questions to which the Lead Member Cleaner Safer Greener, Council Officers and the Borough Commander responded. The question and answer session was centred on the following points:
· Perceived inequity in parking regulations across the Borough and in particular Banglatown counterbalanced with public support for parking control in response to consultation.
· The acceptability of graffiti tolerant zones with particular reference to St Andrews Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. Also the timescales for bringing forward the Public Realm Strategy, which would include a graffiti policy.
· The gap between the perception of crime by residents and the statistics showing an ongoing reduction in crime. In particular a strand of discussion on a significant resident perception of a drug dealing problem, initiatives to address this, and the positive outcome for crime rates of this.
· The importance of both multi-agency working and replication of good practice to tackle crime. The Crime Reduction Partnership was seen as a strong driver for joined up working and confidence building in this context, and scrutiny by the local authority was also seen as a positive contribution to this effort.
· The importance of both a single point of contact to report crime and Anti Social Behaviour and in response “joint tasking”: jointly planned deployment of resources from all agencies charged with tackling this. The operational aspects of joint tasking: deployment of council services, Safer Neighbourhood Teams, Tower Hamlets Enforcement Officers, Uniformed Police. Implementation of ASB hotline highlighted and associated data capture/ analysis. Highlighted
· The aspiration of the police to move to a local neighbourhood management model: identification of concerns locally and deployment of resources accordingly. How this had model had been seen to work elsewhere. The importance of correctly prioritising issues/ offences, and working to address these to the benefit of residents for example low level ASB if tackled quickly paid dividends. It was noted that discussions with Tower Hamlets Homes were underway with a view to raising the priority level of ASB.
· The challenges as seen by the Lead Member:
o Drugs – tackling dealing hence the investment of additional resources and actioning the “prevent” agenda.
o Underage drinking seen at the hotspot of St Georges Churchyard and resulting ASB including confrontation related to faith.
o Dangerous Dogs as a weapon – being addressed through scrutiny.
o Prevention of youth reoffending – initiatives underway and scrutiny examining this.
· The challenge anticipated by the Borough Commander of unprecedented and severe resource constraints in the public sector and the impact of this on police resourcing and front line service delivery. Also whether there was an adequate mechanism within the local strategic partnership to discuss this and how the differing priorities of the partners could be met. How well the Borough was placed to meet this challenge.
· Clarification/ assurance in relation to recent incidents of homophobic crime and their impact on community cohesion due in part to a perception that this was less of a priority for the police than other crimes. The need in this context to improve street lighting and implement move obvious uniformed policing up to 11pm and consideration that police targets should be adjusted to match the Council’s priorities.
· How partnership working could be improved to expeditiously address transport and environmental issues such as pollution and noise etc.
· Clarification/ assurance in relation to the good work undertaken by the in house waste education team, and the inclusion in a report to Cabinet of a delegation to officers to vary the Council’s waste contract with its contractor Violia to include this function.
· Clarification/ assurance regarding concerns raised by residents about Violia’s Palestinian connections/ contracts. Lead Member to provide Councillor Heslop with the Council’s communication rebuttals in this matter.
· Current Communities, Localities and Culture Directorate performance, and that of its contractors, in respect of Workforce to Reflect the Community.
· Council performance in relation to detritus targets and also food waste recycling, the latter given perception that recycling containers provided by the Council were used for other purposes.
· Clarification/ assurance regarding enforcement action undertaken to mitigate illegal taxi ranks.
· Details of the deployment in Local Area Partnership Areas of the 17 additional police officers funded by the Authority. Mr Biggs, MPA Link Member emphasised the importance of complimentary services given the increasingly stretched resources of the MPA.
· Mechanisms and criteria for deployment in relation to joint tasking, in particular tapping local intelligence through consultation with LAP chairs.
· Progress made in engaging people (and in particular employees) out and about as the eyes and ears of the Council for example reporting rubbish dumping.
The Chair thanked Councillor Abdal Ullah for his presentation and also thanked Mr Paul Rickett Borough Commander (Metropolitan Police) and Mr John Biggs, Metropolitan Police Authority Link Member, for their contributions.