Agenda item

To receive a report from Tim Fellowes, Chair, Safer Neighbourhood Board.

RECEIVED a report from Tim Fellows, Chair, Enfield Safer Neighbourhood Board.

NOTED:

(i)              The Enfield Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB) has been in place since April 2014, and this was Tim’s first year as Chair;

(ii)             The SNB holds four public meetings a year including and Annual General meeting;

(iii)            At each Board meeting it is planned to receive a presentation on a current issue regarding policing or community safety. This ongoing process will allow the Board to be better informed and more able to input in policing numbers;

(iv)           In addition, six Board members have formed an Executive Committee (including the Chair) which has assisted in taking forward the work of the Board. In order to do this, Members within the Committee have been given particular roles; for example, monitoring and dealing with all incoming and outgoing communications or co-ordinating funding bids;

(v)            In addition to the three successful bids outlined in the last update, the SNB has also had an additional two bids for project funding accepted. Brief details of the projects were provided. These were: EIYCT & Oasis Hub Enfield – Youth Outreach and LYRC Crises Action Team;

(vi)           Three projects had received funding from MOPAC for 2014/15. These were: St Giles Trust SOS Knife Project and Leaflet, Parenting Workshops and Visits to Ben Kinsella Exhibition. An additional update was provided on each of these projects;

(vii)          In summary, the board has now established itself more fully and continues to effectively monitor issues of crime and community safety.

Tim asked the Councillors present how they felt the CAPEs were working in their wards?

Councillor Maguire said she regularly attended her CAPE and found it very useful. She felt it was a shame however that it was always the same people who turned up but felt that the time of the meeting, 11:00am, limited the number of people who would be able to attend. She did sometimes feel guilty that police time was being spent sitting around a table, when their time could be better spent elsewhere. Tim said that if the CAPE is well run it is in fact very good use of police time. He agreed that there is a need to increase the number of people attending the ward CAPES and felt this was something that Councillors could assist with as they came into contact with lots of members of the public. He asked Councillors to encourage residents to attend. Councillor Maguire said she did feel there were now limitations on what the CAPEs could achieve especially when looking at police figures and hot spots.

Councillor Hayward agreed that it was often difficult to attend her CAPE due to the time of day it was held. She also felt it was important to move location of the meetings around the ward. This would hopefully encourage more people to attend.

Councillor Laban said that her ward CAPE meeting was also held during the day, which again, often made attendance difficult. The meeting was however held in a school which proved successful as the Headteacher could then have a lot of input around schooling issues, and as a result of this, a good relationship between the CAPE and the school (Chace Community) had been formed. She felt that this good practice could be shared across the CAPEs. She advised that council officers and a Police Sergeant also attended her Ward Forum meetings to provide various pieces of information and updates, and this arrangement also proved very successful.

Tim said that there was no reason why the CAPE meetings had to be held in the day. It was down to the membership of each CAPE to decide the time and location of the meetings.

Members noted the contents of the report and thanked Tim for his update.