Agenda and minutes

Regeneration and Sustainable Development Scrutiny Committee - Friday, 4th December, 2020 10.00 am

Venue: Via Microsoft Teams

Items
No. Item

1.

Anti-Social Behaviour Plan, Domestic Abuse, Hate Crime and Drug Abuse pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

The Committee was presented with a presentation covering the topics Members requested an update on following their recent Regeneration and Sustainable Development Forward Work Programme Workshop; those topics included Anti-Social Behaviour, Domestic Abuse, Hate Crime and Drug Abuse.

Anti-Social Behaviour

Members were informed that the main focus of work this year for the Anti-Social Behaviour Team had been around the issues in town centres, in particular the Ambassador area in Neath town centre; the general complaints from residents were related to on-street drinking and drug issues, and there had been a slight increase in begging over the past few weeks which was noted to be expected at this time of year.

Officers explained that the work in Neath town centre had started in June once lockdown had been lifted; significant partnership work had been put in place and since then there had been a definite improvement in work. It was mentioned that there were still some issues in the Ambassador, however weekly meetings were taking place and any issues were being dealt with efficiently as possible. It was noted that the next partnership meeting was scheduled for Tuesday 15 December and in this meeting Officers were hoping to resolve any outstanding issues of the work that had been concluded; any further issues would be referred into the Police led problem solving group from there-on.

It was mentioned that two operations were being put in place throughout December to target certain aspects of Anti-Social Behaviour; Operation Shoebill which will cover retail crime and Operation Kilmarnock which will cover street drinking.

In regards to partnership meetings, Officers had been meeting with Local Councillors in areas where there were highlighted issues, for example a meeting recently took place with Local Councillors, partners and the Business Improvement District (BID) Team in Port Talbot.

A mobile Police Station was stated to had been positioned in the town centre of Port Talbot until the end of November and following discussions with the Sargent who was based there, improvements had been made as individuals who had carried out acts of Anti-Social Behaviour had been identified and work was being undertaken in order to address these particular issues.

In the Briton ferry area, the issues were noted to have been mainly around poor landlords and issues around the properties; Environmental Health had taken on the majority of these issues as they were relating to fly tipping and poor condition of properties.

Members were informed that GW Logs was a big issue in the Gwaun-Cae-Gurwen area and in November there was a court case in which individuals were successfully prosecuted for the poor welfare of animals; there was still some work ongoing in this area as recently additional issues had arisen, therefore Officers will be working with the Local Councillor in the area to address those.

It was stated that a partnership meeting in regards to Wern Works in Briton Ferry was due to be convened to address the emerging issues on the site; Officers were in contact National  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1.

2.

Forward Work Programme 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 69 KB

Minutes:

Members noted the Regeneration and Sustainable Development Scrutiny Forward Work Programme for 2020/21, which was populated by the Committee at their recent Forward Work Programme Workshop.

As previously mentioned, it was agreed that Domestic Abuse trends and figures be added to the Forward Work Programme in order to obtain more information and detail from both the specialist providers and the IDVA service from the lockdown period.

 

3.

Forward Work Programme - Cabinet pdf icon PDF 44 KB

Minutes:

The Cabinet Forward Work Programme was provided to Members information purposes; the Forward Work Programme was noted.