Agenda item

You can find out what the Safer Neighbourhood Team, Street Environment Officer and Young People’s Service have been doing in the ward over the last few months

Ray Milligan introduced himself to the meeting and explained that he is currently acting sergeant for the Guildhall ward.  He gave an update on Crime and Community Safety issues in the ward.  The following points were noted:

3.1     The Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT) have been very busy over the last 2 months.

3.2     The Ice Factor was policed very robustly with a large presence of PSCO’s.  There were no real problems other than a couple of petty property thefts from the ice skating rink.  The items were recovered and returned. 

3.3     The SNT is currently going through a period of change in terms of shift patterns and resources.  From February PCSO coverage hours will be extended from 10pm to midnight.  Rota’s will also be changing but the details of this have not yet been finalised.

3.4     PSCO Jenny McLaughlin is organising a youth festival day for the summer.  This will involve arts and music amongst other things.   PCSO McLaughlin would welcome any ideas from residents and can be contacted on 0845 6060247.

3.5     The SNT will shortly be running Operation Machine which will be focussed on deterring car crime.  There will be a high visible police presence in the Walmgate area. The aim is to educate people in car crime prevention.

3.6     Overall, crime in the ward is down by 5% compared to last year.  There has however been an increase in dwelling burglaries.  Operation Joypad is underway which involves the SNT testing the doors on residential property’s to see if they are locked.  If the doors are unlocked, the SNT will put a postcard through the residents letterbox to alert them that their property is insecure.

3.7     Alleygating schemes in the ward have been approved and should be underway by March 2009.

3.8     The SNT have intelligence on who has been causing criminal damage to windows in Walmgate.  Residents should be reassured that the holes in the windows were not caused by a gun.

Inspector Mark Khan informed residents about the policing pledge.  Postcards outlining the pledge were available for residents to look at.  The following points were noted:

3.9     The policing pledge is a set of 10 pledges that North Yorkshire Police (NYP) are expected to deliver and will be measured against.

3.10The SNT realise that they have some work to do to be able to achieve all of these pledges.  Particularly, there is work to be done on the time taken for the SNT to respond to messages from the public and also the methods in which the team gives monthly updates to the public.   A resident suggested that the SNT could publish updates in the numerous free publications that are delivered to houses around the city.

3.11The SNT welcomes feedback and ideas from residents and encouraged them to get in touch with the team on 0845 6060 247 or through the NYP website.

3.12Inspector Khan has been tasked with finding 3 police priorities to cover the whole area that he is responsible for; this includes Guildhall, Micklegate and Clifton wards.  He will be working with partners such as the Street Environment Officers to do this.  More information will be available on the NYP website.

3.13The meeting agreed that a further debate was needed on what the police priorities should be for Guildhall ward.  The priorities need to be more specific. It was agreed that a discussion on police priorities would be included on the agenda at the next ward committee meeting.

Residents asked the following questions:

a)  Many people break the law in the city centre with their vehicles.  This is a big problem and is not a trivial issue.  It is not clear whether it is an issue for the traffic wardens or the police.  Please could you confirm?

Response was given that any issues to do with moving traffic are a police issue; any issues surrounding parking are the responsibility of traffic wardens unless it is wilful obstruction when this again becomes the responsibility of the police.

b)  Will the police continue to take action against people who continuously break the law by riding on pavements?

Response was given that it is recognised that cycling offences are a big issue in the city.  The police will be continuing to issue tickets to culprits and run operations to tackle this issue.  

c)  Are crime figures available to residents?

Response was given that figures are not currently available but the NYP website includes crime maps of specific areas.