Agenda and minutes

The evacuation procedure was noted.

There were no interests declared.

To approve the minutes of the last meeting held on 13 June 2024.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the Community Safety Select Committee meeting which was held on 13 June 2024 for approval and signature.

AGREED that the minutes of the Committee meeting held on 13 June 2024 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To consider information from the Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) Community Safety and Regulated Services department in relation to this scrutiny topic.

Following the Committee’s approval of the scope and plan for the Welcoming and Safe Town Centres review at the last meeting in June 2024, this first evidence-gathering session involved an initial submission from the Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council (SBC) Community Safety and Regulated Services department.

Led by the SBC Service Manager – Public Protection, and supported by both the SBC Environmental Health Service Manager and SBC Team Leader – Licensing, a presentation was given which covered the following:

·       What does Welcoming and Safe mean?

·       Welcoming and Safe in Stockton

·       Proposed Scope and Plan

·       Establish the key issues: What do we already know?

·       What is already in place?

o   Licensing

o   Trading Standards

o   Environmental Health

·       Powering our Future: Community Safety and Regulated Services

·       Next Steps: Priorities for 2024

·       Role of Safer Stockton Partnership

The session began with considerations around definitions of ‘welcoming’ and ‘safe’.  Highlighting that each of the Borough’s six town centres (Billingham, Ingelby Barwick, Norton, Stockton, Thornaby and Yarm) had unique characteristics and different opportunities and challenges, a late-2023 Parliament debate on town centre safety was referenced which experienced its own difficulties in narrowing down what this actually meant, principally as it impacted all who lived, worked or visited these locations.  An example of another Local Authority (York) which had outlined a vision for its town centres was also shared, and a potential definition for Stockton-on-Tees was provided which could be adapted / refined as part of this review.

One of the Committee’s aims was to establish the key issues within each of the Borough’s six town centres with regards safety.  To this end, feedback on the Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) consultation from December 2022 was relayed which, following an encouraging 1,300 responses, identified public perceptions of feeling unsafe in Stockton and Norton town centres, and particular concerns about alcohol-related anti-social behaviour (ASB) and aggressive begging.  It was also known that Stockton town centre had the highest volume of reported crime and ASB across the Borough, whilst Yarm and Ingleby Barwick had the lowest.  In terms of Community Safety requests for service in relation to town centre locations, ASB (38%) and crime (17%) had the largest percentages of all requests between April 2022 and June 2024.

Attention was drawn to data on reported incidents within each of the Borough’s town centres since 2022-2023 which indicated the following:

·       Stockton: Highest number of incidents, with over 900 ASB reports in 2022-2023, dropping below 700 last year (2023-2024).  Crime reported to SBC was over 700 last year.  (note: last year, SBC started including CCTV-monitored incidents in the figures, which accounted for the increases in other categories)

·       Thornaby: ASB continued to be the stand-out issue at around 200 incidents each year for the last two years (2022-2023 and 2023-2024).  Recently, a group of young people (who had been causing problems around the Golden Eagle / Allensway) successfully completed the ‘Making Good’ programme and had not been involved in further incidents.  Thornaby town centre was covered by ASB hot-spot  ...  view the full minutes text for item CSS/16/24

Chair’s Update

The Chair had no further updates.

Work Programme 2024-2025

Consideration was given to the Committee’s current work programme (2024-2025).  The next meeting was due to take place on 26 September 2024 where the second evidence-gathering session for the review of Welcoming and Safe Town Centres would be held featuring anticipated contributions from further SBC departments.

AGREED that the Community Safety Select Committee Work Programme 2024-2025 be noted.