Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Davis, Edmunds and Job.

To receive declarations of interest.

There were none.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 30 November 2023.

RESOLVED That the Minutes of the meeting held on 30 November 2023 were approved as a correct record.

The Chair of the Committee will answer questions from members of the public submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

There were none.

See Agenda Item 4 for deadlines for submission.

There were none.

To receive a verbal update.

The Strategic Director of Communities introduced the report and gave a brief overview of the key points and a timeline of the steps that had been taken to get to this point. He then informed the committee of the next planned steps for the strategy which included:

·         First draft to be received in January 2024

·         First meeting of the Members Panel on 23 January 2024

·         All Member Workshop on 19 February 2024

·         Arts organisations and members panel workshop on 1 March 2024

·         Consultation feedback period

·         Update to Committee on the 14 March

·         Final strategy to be drafted April – June 2024

·         Final Strategy put forward for recommendation at Community Services and Licensing Committee (27 June) and Strategy and Resources Committee (11 July)

·         Final decision whether to adopt the Strategy to be made at Full Council on 18 July.

·         If approved, publication of the document due to take place on the 6 September 2024.

The Chair, Councillor Aldam, thanked Members of the committee who were assisting on the members panel and stated that she was looking forward to seeing the strategy progress.

The Member report was circulated prior to Committee, there were no further questions raised.

Councillor Tucker commended the reduction with the response times however stated that at a recent meeting of Wotton-Under-Edge Parish Council they had been informed that only 10% of calls to the police were achieved within the suggested timeframe within the Parish.

The Member report was circulated prior to Committee, there were no further questions raised.

Councillor Robinson stated that the trustees of Woodchester Mansion welcomed a visit from Stroud District Councillor and would look to arrange a visit in the springtime. 

The Member report was circulated prior to Committee, there were no further questions raised.

The Chair, Councillor Aldam, invited the Head of Community Servies to provide a brief update on the Leisure Services Project.

The Head of Community Services informed the committee of the following updates:

·        They had appointed the former Manager of the Pusle as the Interim Leisure Services Manager to deliver the project.

·        The newly procured leisure management system was due to be installed first at the Pulse in April. It be built to specification for both the Pulse and Stratford Park Leisure Centre (SPLC) ready for the installation in SPLC in November. 

·        Branding and equipment procurement was underway for both sites and procurement for a marketing partner for SPLC was due to commence next week.

·        Assessment of the IT infrastructure at SPLC had taken place and the IT team were working on a plan to connect them to the systems.

·        The Human Resources (HR) team had met with the current management of SLM to draft a consultation timeline for the members of staff who would be transferring across to the Council.

·        The condition survey results had been received.

·        The communications team had drafted a communications plan which would be used to keep relevant parties updated on the progress of the project. 

·        Work on the specification document had commenced which would outline all of the services, training requirements and health and safety protocols.

Councillor Crews commend the appointment of the Interim Leisure Services Manager.

Councillor Prenter asked when the results of the condition survey would be shared with Members. The Head of Community Servies explained that they were working on transferring the information from the survey into a readable format which would then be shared with Members.

Councillor Prenter further questioned when they would be looking to request further funding, if required. The Head of Community Services explained that there was a meeting of the Leisure Oversite Board in February which would be discussing the options.

The following answers were given in response to Councillor Robinson:

·        The Interim Leisure Services Manager would be responsible for both the Pulse and SPLC

·        They were hoping to transfer all of the current operational staff from SPLC to the Council.

·        Consultation with unions and the current operational staff had not yet taken place but formed part of the timeline that HR had created.

Councillor Baker queried the effects of the transfer on the annual membership fee. The Head of Community Services explained that the direct debit customers would be transferred to the Council and negotiations would take place with SLM regarding any customers who had paid upfront.

Councillor Tucker asked why the appointment was interim. The Head of Community Services explained that they had advertised the permanent role twice without successful appointment therefore an interim role had been secured for 12 months in order to bring the service in house. A permanent role would be recruited afterwards.

To consider the work programme.

Councillor Prenter questioned when the remit of performance management would be amended to include the Youth Council. The Head of Community Services explained that it needed to form part of the Council Plan. The Strategic Director of Communities stated that the earliest it would be looked at would be Summer 2024 as it had been refreshed last year.

Councillor Tucker questioned the date of the Police and Crime Commissioner and Director of Public Health information evening as it was scheduled on the work programme for January. The Head of Community Services agreed to look into this outside of the meeting.

RESOLVED   To note the above update to the Work Programme.

To inform members of the Community Services & Licensing Committee of the implementation of the Serious Violence Duty for Local Authorities.

The Interim Principal Community Services Officer introduced the report and highlighted the following main points:

·        This Serious Violence Statutory Duty commenced on 31st January 2023 as part of Section 17 of the Crime & Disorder Act 1998.

·        This required local authorities to consider the implication on crime, disorder, and anti-social behaviour in all their day-to-day activities regardless of department.

·        An amendment to Section 17 of the Crime & Disorder Act further required local authorities to include a statutory duty regarding serious violence.

·        The Serious Violence Framework has adopted the world health organisation’s definition of serious violence which can be found at paragraph 1.3 of the report.

·        These duties have been brought in as a direct response to an 84% increase of serious violence from 2014-2020 within England and Wales.

·        Local authorities can work together and across boundaries as part of this duty.

·        There will also be a requirement to understand the causes of service crime which is detailed in paragraph 1.11 of the report.

·        There was also an introduction of the serious violence homicide review, further details of which can be found at paragraph 1.13.

·        The Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner has taken responsibility to complete the Strategic Needs Assessment (SNA) and develop the strategy before the 31 January 2024 as required by Section 17 of the Crime & Disorder Act 1998.

·        There was a funding pot available for serious violence which the council can make an application for. There were currently 2 applications pending.

·        The success of this duty will be measured via the options listed in paragraph 2.8 of the report.

Councillor Baker questioned whether funding would be available to cover or contribute to the costs of holding homicide reviews including Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHR). The Head of Community agreed to take Councillor Bakers question to the board and get back to her outside of the meeting.

In response to Councillor Baker, it was confirmed that the appendix mentioned on page 50 formed part of the national initiative for Modern Slavery and could be located online.

Councillor Tucker queried the cause for the increase in recorded crimes and whether it was related to a change in police reporting and less crimes not being reported. The Interim Principal Community Services Officer explained that over the last 10 years police have been actively encouraging people to report crimes which would cause the figures to increase however he reminded Councillors that the 84% increase he quoted earlier was a national figure and not just related to the district.

Councillor Jones proposed and Councillor Baker seconded.

Councillor Robinson highlighted that he was appointed as the Chair of the Police and Crime Panel.

Councillor Jones stated that this was a very important issue and needed to be addressed.

The Chair, Councillor Aldam commend Officers for the report.

After being put to a vote, the Motion was carried unanimously.

RESOLVED To adopt the Serious Violence Duty.