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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Town Hall, High Street Maidstone

Contact: Oliviya Parfitt  01622 602032

Note: Acting as the Crime & Disorder Committee 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillor Brice, Hastie and Hinder.

2.

Notification of Substitute Members

Minutes:

Councillor Brindle was in attendance as Substitute for Councillor Brice.

 

Councillor Springett was in attendance as Substitute for Councillor Hinder.

3.

Urgent Items

Minutes:

There were no urgent items.

4.

Notification of Visiting Members

Minutes:

Councillor Parfitt-Reid, Lead Member for Communities and Engagement was in attendance as a Visiting Member for Item 11 – Briefing on Safety in the Town Centre.

5.

Disclosures by Members and Officers

Minutes:

There were no disclosures by Members and Officers.

6.

Disclosures of Lobbying

Minutes:

There were no disclosures of lobbying.

7.

EXEMPT ITEMS

Minutes:

RESOLVED: That all items be taken in public as proposed.

8.

Presentation of Petitions

Minutes:

There were no petitions.

9.

Question and Answer session from Local Residents

Minutes:

There were no questions from Local Residents.

10.

Questions from Members to the Chairman

Minutes:

There were no questions from Members to the Chairman.

11.

Member Briefing on Safety in the Town Centre pdf icon PDF 51 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The officers in attendance were formally introduced: 

 

·  Martyn Jeynes, Community and Strategic Partnerships Manager (Maidstone Borough Council)

·  Ellen Shaw, Youth Hub Delivery Manager Maidstone (Kent County Council)

·  Andrew Stringer, Partnership Sergeant, Maidstone, Community Safety Partnership (Kent Police)

 

In commencing the briefing, the Community and Strategic Partnerships Manager outlined the geographical area covered by the Town Centre Task Force (TCTF), known as the ‘local super output area’ for local crime. The TCTF’s focus was to protecting people from harm, and improve the culture associated with the day and night-time economies of the Town Centre.

 

The Partnership Sergeant, Maidstone Community Safety Partnership (Kent Police) outlined the Task Force’s membership, which included five police officers, and partner associations. The OSARA problem-solving technique was explained, with a focus on early engagement and detailed analysis of any problems with the TCTF’s partners to remove a contributing factor to the criminality.

 

The Youth Hub Delivery Manager Maidstone (Kent County Council) outlined the contextual safeguarding approach, which focused on understanding young people’s experienced of significant harm beyond their families. A monthly district contextual safeguarding meeting took place between the TCTF’s partners which involved location assessments, which aimed to create safe environments for young people from the places and spaces available.

 

A key element would be providing contextual safeguarding training to non-traditional partners, helping them to better understand young people and identify signs of exploitation, amongst other things. Statistically, young people that had experienced trauma were more likely to undertake risk-taking behaviour and require NHS services as a result. The use of the OSARA and contextual safeguarding techniques collectively increased the knowledge available to synergise the work between the partner organisations.

 

The three work strands of the TCTF were briefly outlined to include implementation and creation, pursue and changing/challenging behaviour, and the engagement and legacy aspect.

 

The Partnership Sergeant, Maidstone Community Safety Partnership (Kent Police) stated that the individuals presenting the most challenging behaviours were identified with the partnership organisations. The OSARA technique was applied, with successful examples of the evidence-based partnership working to displace the behaviour included Brenchley Gardens and a shop at the north end of Week Street.

 

The Community and Strategic Partnerships Manager explained that from the Shepway Task Force’s creation, whilst inappropriate behaviour could be addressed, further resources were needed to prevent its reoccurrence. As such, a successful application was made to the Kent and Medway Violence Reduction Unit for a youth hub in Maidstone Mall. The ‘326’ youth hub would be an easily accessible space, in a busy part of the town centre, with free workshops for young people to attend and would be open on weekends. The opening hours of 3-6 p.m. on weekdays would provide a safe space during the ‘lost hours’ between the end of the school and working days. 

 

With the support of the Kent Police and Crime Commissioner, the Council had been awarded £460k from the Safer Streets Fund Initiative. The funding’s allocation was outlined, to include an office space for police officers in Brenchley Gardens, control tools  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

12.

DURATION OF MEETING

Minutes:

7.30 p.m. to 9.32 p.m.