1. Welcome and Apologies and Moment of Silence
2. Minutes of the meeting held on 15.10.07 and matters arising
3. Police Update and new officers:
Chief Inspector, Rob Harper
Ops Inspector Steven Fleming.
4. Officers' reports
5. Our £1,000 budget, where is it and has it been spent?
6. Priorities
7. Any other business
8. Date of next meeting
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MINUTES OF ST. LEONARD’S WARD PANEL MEETING
HELD ON MONDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2007 AT 7 P.M.
Present: Lee Alley (Chair), Ruth Edwards (Treasurer), Rosalie Lawlor (Secretary), Maureen Puddy, Sam Szczepanski, Gilliam Lunnon, Jack Ward, Inspector Martin Wild, Kerrie Sturgeon (CPSO), Ben Williams (CPSO), Tony Booth (Chair Streatham South), Peter Lloyd, Paul McGuinness
1. Apologies: Jenny Golding, Paula Veiga, Adina Bozga, Gillian Tryon, Jamie Gallie
Lee Alley reported to the meeting on the sudden death of our Vice Chair, Alan Davidson and reported he had visited Alan’s widow that day with some flowers and had expressed on our behalf the Panel’s condolences. Superintendent Jonathan Tottman had given condolences on behalf of the officers. Lee reported that Alan had been a very good and supportive Vice Chair, always keen to help and offer suggestions. There was a two minute silence held to remember Alan.
2. Minutes of the Meeting Held on 15.10.07
Alan had prepared the Minutes for the meeting held on 15.10.07, but Lee had not been able to go through them thoroughly with Alan before he died and as a result they had not been posted on the website. A copy was circulated around the meeting to bring attendees up to date and the discussion and their acceptance was delayed until later in the meeting.
Agenda items No. 2 – Minutes of the previous meeting held on 15.10.07. The following paragraph was asked to be added to the Minutes:
“Norfolk House Road Problem: Paul McGuinness reported that he was not happy with the way Lambeth had tackled this problem and unfortunately Nabil Mezoughi was not present to comment. Paul McGuinness felt the problem could have been sorted out within two weeks if all the relevant departments had communicated properly and it had been left up to the residents in the road to find out there was an eviction notice on the problem family”.
Lee Alley asked if the ASB Unit can intervene in a private landlord dispute? and sought clarification on this. Lee said he would discuss at the Chairs Co-ordinating meeting. Questions were asked about the effectiveness of Community Safety, are there problems with the officer or is it an attitudinal problem of the office. It would appear that the council is happier to deal with matters on council estates and the Anti-Social Behaviour Unit is denying being able to use information that is required by law when they could use it. Inspector Wild reported on a new act which creates a social responsibility for private landlords to ensure their tenants behave. Inspector Wild could not remember the name of the act and as it is new he does not know how strong this act is.
3. Police Update and New Officers
Sergeant Martin Wild has been promoted to Inspector and is now working in Wandsworth and his replacement starts on 20.12.07.
Ben and Kerry were introduced to the meeting as two new PCSO’s.
Inspector Wild reported on two operations that the CPSO’s had been involved with: Operation Blunt which was a joint operation with Streatham South and Trading Standards over the Halloween period. This was an operation to detect traders who sold fireworks and cigarettes to underage children. Two traders have been prosecuted and three people were arrested on immigration charges. Traders who do not sell to underage children receive a positive feed back.
The other operation was a joint venture with Streatham South and Wandsworth which also involved horses patrolling around the roads around Streatham Common Station, passive drug dogs and the knife arch to detect and deter anyone from committing a crime. It was also a public reassurance exercise. Thirty cannabis warnings were issued with £500 in revenue collected, but no knives were found. PCSO’s are still patrolling around because people have been followed from the station and mugged.
The shift patterns of the officers have been tight with a lot of late turns due to Halloween. St. Leonard’s was bad last year over this period culminating in the fireworks incident on the Common at the display, but this year has been better with only one allegation of firework damage on the ward, but the person responsible has not been found. This year’s firework display was a success. Unfortunately Streatham Hill suffered this year with firework nuisance, but with patrolling and the issuing of tickets the problem ceased.
Burglary rates are still high and it is a priority. There are high visibility patrols taking place. St. Leonard’s crime figures are still the highest in the sub-command and two examples of the type of crime the police are dealing with are theft from shops and assaults after drinking hours. There have been 52 offences during the past 12 weeks and the areas with the most crime have been Gleneagle Road, Conyers Road and Tooting Bec Gardens – multiple occupancy buildings with the crime mainly occurring on a Friday, Saturday and a Tuesday.
Inspector Wild called for anyone who sees anything out of the ordinary in their area to report it. The residents in Tooting Bec Gardens used their initiative and told the residents in the area to ensure locks were secure on doors and to keep security and safety at the forefront on their minds. Inspector Wild explained that a break in to a MO building can equate to 4/5 incidents. Teams are working on this and are trying to identify targets, checking DNA and using other intelligence that comes forward. The police like to have points of contacts and would like details of any residents’ associations, neighbourhood watch schemes and to know if any of these groups issue their own newsletter.
ACTION: Residents’ Associations and Neighbourhood Watch Schemes.
Street crime is down to 28%, although there has been a pattern emerging in the Mount Ephraim/Norfolk House Road/Kingscourt Road area of people being followed home from transport hubs.
Reported vehicle crime is at an all time low.
Assault rates are running in line with burglary rates and are at an unacceptable level and the police are still trying to identify hot spots. The Borough Commander really wants to work on this and it is a complex matter.
GBH is down and it is a hard crime to profile.
Tony Booth, Chair of Streatham South, asked if there was anyone in the Police monitoring areas where crime happens so evidence can be gathered to help change an environment to prevent crime happening. Inspector Wild responded that there are always a lot of stakeholder groups involved in an issue and attempts are made to work on such matters, but it is difficult and takes time to change things. The buses standing in Tooting Bec Gardens is such an issue. The local residents do not like the fact that they park there because the pavement is difficult to walk on, they create traffic congestion, and they create a hidden area for crime to be committed.
Our new Sergeant is called Louise Miller and two of our PCSO’s are to become police constables and will start their training in the New Year. We have no replacements for them as yet and we will be informed as soon as there is news.
Steven Fleming is a temporary Operations Inspector and our new Chief Inspector, Steven Harper, is due to start in the New Year.
Streatham Green is still a priority and referrals have been made to the Spires Centre. The Spires Centre now has a Polish speaking worker. The Dispersal Zone Order is reviewed monthly and in response to a question about whether it can be in place permanently, Inspector Wild said he did not think this possible and it does not happen anywhere else in Lambeth. But if a Dispersal Zone Order ends, it can be reinstated fairly quickly. The council is considering a no-drinking zone policy for the whole of the Borough, but the ramifications are huge.
There has been no feedback on murders.
Streatham South have a Polish speaking female Special Constable and hopefully St. Leonard’s will also get a Polish speaking Special Constable.
A Council survey carried out within the business community recently reported that there has been a drop in the number of reports about problem people and rubbish gets cleared promptly and Inspector Wild put this down to ward panel pressure.
St. Leonard’s churchyard still has problems which the Police are aware of.
Inspector Wild responded to a comment about Streatham Police station closing. It is not closing, but there are talks of re-siting the response units from Streatham and Brixton to another site and the public face of Streatham and Brixton Police stations will be the safer neighbourhood teams.
Lee Alley commented that Garrad’s Road has 5 CCTV cameras, which seems excessive when there doesn’t seem to be a problem now with prostitutes and the High Road has no CCTV camera coverage. Councillor Mark Bennett has promised to do something about CCTV in the High Road, but nothing has happened.
4. Officers’ Reports
Rosalie Lawlor reported that she is Chair of the Co-ordinating Committee which is a forum for all the Chairs in the sub-command and the Police to get round a table and exchange information and this will meet quarterly. There has been one formal meeting and an informal meeting so far and the next one is due on 8th January 2008 and Rosalie will report on that at the next ward panel meeting on 18th February 08.
Lee Alley reported that work with the safer neighbourhood representation goes on. The group have just about firmed up a Constitution, safer neighbourhood tool kits and other resources will be available for the groups to use, such as translators, databases and facilities to produce newsletters. Lee also reported he had asked the Safer Lambeth Partnership for the latest up-to-date crime figures and statistics in our ward, but he has not received anything yet. Ideally, Lee would like to have this information regularly, not just at meetings.
5. Our £1,000 Budget
Inspector Wild said he believes the money is held by the team and used for issuing information in the form of leaflets, cards and anti-burglary packs.
6. Priorities
1. Domestic burglary.
2. Street drinking in St. Leonard’s churchyard and on the Green.
7. Any Other Business
In response to a question by Rosalie Lawlor about providing a cycle lane on the pavement in Abbotswood Road, Inspector Wild recommended she write to Streatham and Clapham High School suggesting they contact the Highways Agency at the Council.
8. Election of new Vice Chair
Because of the unexpected death of Alan Davidson, the panel has no Vice Chair and Lee Alley announced that if anyone wishes to become Vice Chair they are to put their names forward before the next meeting on 18th February 08.
9. Date of next meeting
This is scheduled for 18.02.08.
