Agenda and draft minutes

To approve as correct the notes of the meeting held on 28 March 2017.

The notes of the previous meeting held on 28/03/17 were received by the group.

The Community Development & Safeguarding Manager provided the group with an overview of Community Grants. It was proposed that grants under £3000 would be dealt with by officers whilst grants exceeding £3000 would still be brought to the PDAG. The group agreed to this proposal.

The Health & Wellbeing / Community Safety Manager introduced the PREVENT strategy to the group, a list of duties for local authorities to uphold under the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015.

The PREVENT strategy has three specific strategic objectives:

·         Respond to the ideological challenge of terrorism and the threat we face from those who promote it

·         Prevent people from being drawn into terrorism and ensure that they are given appropriate advice and support

·         Work with sectors and institutions where there are risks of radicalisation that we need to address.

It was explained that an action plan to capture the duties had been developed and will be revisited on an ongoing basis to ensure that the Council remains compliant and that where required refresher training will be provided.

The Health & Wellbeing / Community Safety Manager introduced the group to the SIRCS system, a communication system for use by local shops and businesses to counteract crime and disorder.

The existing system is based on radio and allowed businesses to communicate with one another to share information that could be vital to preventing crime. The issue with the radio scheme is that communication is limited to the range of the radios and the handsets are expensive which precludes many smaller businesses from taking part. The new system would use mobile data to allow communication via a smartphone and be linked to a database of known criminals and suspects.

The group approved of the new system and enquired about having more wardens present within the town. It was agreed that the Cabinet Member for Community and Wellbeing would investigate the provision and funding of wardens in Horsham town centre with other Cabinet Members.

The Health & Wellbeing / Community Safety Manager provided the group with an overview of the current Community Safety Partnership priorities and the Police and Crime Plan and changes that may occur in the future.

The group agreed to invite the Police and Crime Commissioner for an interview at a meeting of full Council.

The Health & Wellbeing / Community Safety Manager informed the group that HDC’s CCTV Network was being reviewed and that a new policy would be put in place to cover all departments using CCTV.

The Health & Wellbeing / Community Safety Manager informed the group that HDC would be working with local estate agents to provide a safer and easier way for older, vulnerable people to downsize.

If estate agents could meet a set of criteria they would receive the Horsham District Downsizing Pledge, this would help the community know which estate agents to use when downsizing.

HDC would review and monitor these estate agents to ensure they continued to meet the criteria and maintain the pledge.