Agenda item

To consider the report of the Director of Service Delivery, (copy enclosed) and receive a presentation from the Community Safety Manager.

The Committee received the report of the Director of Service Delivery reporting the progress of activities undertaken by the Maldon Community Safety Partnership (CSP) since the last meeting held on 12 October 2023.

The most recent Essex Police performance summary (to January 2024) was attached as Appendix 1 to the report.

The Community Safety Manager (CSM) took Members through the report and provided additional information and further detail by way of a presentation.

A lengthy discussion ensued during which a number of points were raised and in response the following information was provided:

·        Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) had seen a reduction in the Maldon District since the pandemic ended, however, other areas of ASB such as environmental crime and fly tipping could be addressed better by the offences being reported to the right agency. The CSM explained to Members further that reporting a persistent noise nuisance to Police would be redundant as this would need to be addressed by the local authority or in some cases the social housing landlord.

·        Youth ASB had seen a year-on-year reduction and it was felt this was achieved due to the interventions put in place and the ongoing collaboration with the Youth Service.

·        Chief Inspector (CI) Ballard made Members aware that since August last year, Essex Police had moved over to a different risk assessment model to improve how they treat and dealt with victims of domestic abuse. He went on to add that this was reflected in the statistics due to cases that were previously standard would now be medium resulting in medium cases going up and standard cases seeing a reduction.

·        The increase of burglaries in the Maldon District was addressed, highlighting the impact to communities in rural areas, the CSM and CI Ballard were keen to meet with Members whose ward areas had been affected to discuss this further.

·        Shoplifting had seen an increase in the District and Members drew special attention to the Blackwater Retail Park where a number of shops were being targeted. The CSM was keen to engage with the Retail park owners to see what deterrents could be put in place. He went on to add that the site could benefit from a visit from the Essex Police Business Crime Team.

·        The CSM had recently met with the Counter Terrorism Manager from Bedfordshire Police to arrange for a survey of Maldon promenade which would involve looking at hostile vehicle mitigation measures and hoped this would take place around April this year. Completing this survey would ensure the Council meets it obligations as the landowner and would also put them in good stead for when the Martins Law detailed guidance is released in spring this year.

·        Maldon will have its own Women’s Safety Charter similar to Chelmsford.

·        Members of the public could view crime information on the Essex Police Website.

·        The CSM wanted to introduce a piece of work around men’s mental health “on your team” to the Maldon District after its success in Chelmsford. The piece of work encouraged social interaction using sports activities such as badminton and football.

The Chairperson moved the recommendation as set out in the report and this was duly seconded.

RESOLVED that the current progress of the initiatives undertaken by the Community Safety Partnership be noted.