Agenda and minutes

There were no items.

There were no declarations of interest made.

RESOLVED:  That the minutes of the Community and Environment Scrutiny Panel meeting held on11th October, be agreed as a correct record.

(A period not exceeding 20 minutes for statements from up to 5 members of the public on matters within the Panel’s remit, proposing action(s) which may be considered or contribute towards the future development of the Panel’s work programme).

There were no public statements.

The Panel was presented with the Community Safety Strategy 2022-25, produced by Doncaster’s Community Safety Partnership, prior to it being presented to Cabinet and Full Council.  The Strategy and accompanying Deliver plan provided an overview of the Partnership’s key achievements and outcomes they were seeking to achieve for the people of Doncaster.

The Panel noted the strategic priorities reflected within the Strategy, as follows:

·       Tackling domestic and sexual abuse;

·       Reducing anti-social behaviour;

·       Reducing crime and re-offending;

·       Tackling serious and organised crime;

·       Reducing substance and alcohol misuse;  and

·       Reducing violence and violent crime.

The Panel addressed the following areas in detail:

Supporting the Authority’s corporate objectives:  It was explained that the Strategy interconnected with every element of the Council’s objectives and supported them in the following way:

Doncaster Working – addressed crime reduction and reoffending which in turn attracts new investment to the Borough, leading to increased employment within it’s communities, supporting local businesses and the economy;

Doncaster Living – work across the Doncaster theme groups supports Doncaster’s communities to feel safe wherever they live;

Doncaster Learning – the partnership engaged with the youth Council, children and young people, schools and education providers;

Doncaster Caring – working towards improving safeguarding for victims and vulnerable people;

Connected Council – working as a partnership to provide prevention and a good response to criminal activities.

Consultation – it was noted that this was detailed within the report but in response to a question, it was explained that due to the current pandemic alternative methods of consultation had to be used and unfortunate that face to face consultation could not be undertaken.  Through the Safer Stronger Doncaster partnership different faith organisations, the Youth Council, elected Members and media communications were used to gather feedback and bearing in mind the current health circumstances as much consultation as possible had been undertaken.

With regard to consultation responses by geographical area and age, it was explained that from the responses:

1. Aged 45 – 65 majority of responses received followed by the 25 to 44 age group
2. Post Code – Highest responses were received from DN3, DN4 and DN5 with decent representations from DN1 and DN2.

Detail from the consultation responses was set out within the delivery plan for each theme.

Homelessness and tackling aggressive town centre begging – it was stressed that this behaviour contributed to people feeling unsafe, not just in the town centre but in outlying towns within the Borough.  It was noted that the partnership had been aware of the situation for some time and in Doncaster there was an integrated approach to tackle the situation.  It was recognised that people who were begging generally had very complex lives and it was important that they were receiving the appropriate support, but this could take time and there was no quick fix. 

A Member of the Panel raised that not all people begging were homeless but saw it as a means of additional income, to possibly feed an addiction.  It was therefore stressed that these  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The Senior Governance Officer presented the Scrutiny Work Plan and Council’s Forward Plan or Key Decisions to the Panel for consideration.

RESOLVED: That the Scrutiny work Plan and Forward Plan of Key Decisions, be noted.