Agenda item

To receive the final report (No.181A) and recommendations from the Commission set up by Council in September 2011 to examine the August 2011 disturbances in Enfield.

Council is asked to note that this item is due to be considered by Cabinet on 18 January 2012 and an update on any decision made as a result will be provided for the Council meeting.

Councillor Hamilton (Chair of the Council Commission) moved and Councillor Rye seconded the final report setting out the findings and recommendations from the Council Commission set up to investigate the causes of the August Disturbances in Enfield during August 2011 (Report No.181A).

NOTED

1.      Councillor Hamilton in moving the report highlighted: 

a.      The Commission had been established by Council in September to investigate the reasons behind the disturbances in Enfield and put forward recommendations to prevent them happening again.  The timeframe had been very short to enable the recommendations to feed in to the review being carried out by the National Riots, Communities and Victims Panel.

b.      The Commission had held 12 meetings, including two in public, carried out visits to areas affected and spoken to many of the individuals involved including the Borough Commander, Chief Executive and other community leaders.

c.      The Commission had found no one single cause for the riots.  There were many underlying issues with those involved from all ages and ethnicities.

d.      Whilst there were no easy solutions, there was a need to tackle the underlying issues, build young peoples self esteem and resilience, address increasing marginalisation and improve early intervention.

e.      The Commission would continue to review the offender survey results, and to monitor the implementation of the recommendations, a visit to Pentonville Prison was also planned.  The Council would seek to take advantage of external funding to implement the recommendations.

f.       The final report and recommendations would be submitted to the National Riots, Communities and Victims Panel to feed into their final review.

2.      Councillor Rye in seconding the report highlighted:

a.      The need to recognise that only a small minority of young people had been involved in the disturbances.  A multiplicity of factors had been involved.  Although the recommendations on their own could not prevent future disturbances, they would contribute to prevention.

b.      The Police had done the best job that they could in the circumstances and with the initial resources available but, it was felt, could have been more proactive in their initial response.  Analysis should be undertaken on addressing the factors influencing young people who were known to the Education Welfare Service and who had been excluded.

c.      In addition there was a need to recognise the poor relationship between some young people and the police and to consider how representative the police were of their communities.

3.      The thanks extended by the Commission Chair to all members of the Commission & Alison Trew (Head of Corporate Policy and Performance) and the other Commission Support Officers for their support in arranging and turning around the evidence and Commission meetings so quickly.  These thanks were reiterated by all members of the Commission with its work felt to represent an excellent example of cross party working.

4.      The concerns highlighted in relation to the impact of the criminal justice system and sentencing policy, which the Opposition Group felt had not been fully reflected as an issue within the Commission’s report.  In response the Commission Chair felt it was important to remind members that the review findings and recommendations had been produced following an evidence based review, with the increase in police numbers available to tackle the disturbances seen as more of an influence than the sentencing policy adopted to deal with offenders.

Following a lengthy debate the recommendations in the report were agreed unanimously without a vote.

AGREED

(1)         To approve the Commission final report and recommendations for future action.

(2)    The Commission report be sent to the National Riots Communities and Victims Panel to inform their final report and recommendations.