Apologies were received from Councillors Blackmore and Hastie.

Councillor Brindle was present as substitute for Councillor Blackmore.

Councillor Joy was present as substitute for Councillor Hastie.

There were no urgent items.

There were no visiting members.

Councillor Brice stated that she was a Council Representative on the One Maidstone BID Advisory Board.

There were no disclosures of lobbying.

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

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 20 December 2022 be approved as a correct record and signed.

There were no petitions.

There were no questions from Local Residents.

There was one question from a Member to the Chairman.

Question from Councillor Brice to the Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee

‘Does the Council know how many, if any, local businesses or organisations stock Emergency Bleed Control Kits in the Town Centre Area?’

The Chairman responded to the question.

Councillor Brice asked the following supplementary question:

‘If there are any, where are they, and also to ensure that the information is obvious not only to potentially first responders but members of the public because I think that’s what they’re intended to be for and then any training that is being provided or could be provided with somewhere like the town hall as a centre, to make sure that staff are up to date on how these could be used if appropriate and would be welcomed?’

The Chairman responded to the supplementary question.

Before the conclusion of the question-and-answer session, the purpose of Bleed Kits was briefly explained and discussed.

To listen to the answers to these questions, please use the below link to access the meeting recording:

Overview and Scrutiny Committee - 21 February 2023 - YouTube

The Democratic Services Officer introduced the briefing note which had been produced to support the Committee in concluding its Safety in the Town Centre Review. The appendices to the report were outlined and included suggested actions from the Communications and Community Protection Teams, for the Committee to consider in formulating its recommendations from the review.

During the discussion, several Committee Members stated that they had received feedback from the public that it was sometimes difficult to sign-up to receive online updates relating to safety. The importance of ensuring that the public were able to provide feedback on town centre safety, and that the progress and completion of any of the review’s recommendations were monitored, was strongly emphasised. This would ensure that the Council was taking on board any comments made, and that the Committee were kept informed; in response it was requested that a rapporteur be appointed to conduct a post-review evaluation and to review the town centre safety focused questions within the annual resident’s survey, to ensure that these allowed for year-on-year benchmarking exercises.

To greater publicise the Committee’s review, a request would be made to include information on the review within the next iteration of the Borough Insight Magazine. In response to a question, the Democratic Services Officer confirmed that as part of the new governance arrangements, an annual report on the Committee’s work would be presented to Council.

It was suggested that the stakeholders consulted through the review could be asked to attend a future Committee meeting and provide an update on the work undertaken to improve town centre safety generally. 

RESOLVED: That the points included within Appendix 1 to the briefing note be put forward to the Executive as part of the review, in addition to the following requests that:

a.  A rapporteur be appointed to conduct a post-review evaluation;

b.  The questions contained within the annual survey on town centre safety be reviewed, to ensure that the questioned contained can be used to conduct a benchmarking exercise; and

c.  Information on the Committee’s review be included within the next borough insight magazine.

7.00 p.m. to 7.25 p.m.