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Overview and Scrutiny Committee
Tuesday, 3rd November 2026 at 6:00pm

 

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  1. Slide 1
  2. Councillor Tony Hills
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  1. Mr Jake Hamilton
  2. Councillor Tony Hills
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  1. Councillor Tony Hills
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  1. Cllr Alan Martin
  2. Councillor Tony Hills
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  1. Ms Karen Weller
  2. Slide 2
  3. Slide 3
  4. Slide 4
  5. Slide 5
  6. Folkestone & Hythe Officer
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  40. Slide 39
  41. Councillor Tony Hills
  42. Cllr Paul Thomas
  43. Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly
  44. Folkestone & Hythe Officer
  45. Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly
  46. Councillor Tony Hills
  47. Cllr Paul Thomas
  48. Microphone A
  49. Cllr Paul Thomas
  50. Folkestone & Hythe Officer
  51. Councillor Tony Hills
  52. Cllr Rich Holgate
  53. Cllr Rich Holgate
  54. Folkestone & Hythe Officer
  55. Councillor Tony Hills
  56. Cllr Alan Martin
  57. Slide 40
  58. Slide 41
  59. Slide 42
  60. Slide 43
  61. Microphone A
  62. Folkestone & Hythe Officer
  63. Microphone A
  64. Cllr Alan Martin
  65. Microphone A
  66. Cllr Alan Martin
  67. Councillor Tony Hills
  68. Cllr Laura Davison
  69. Councillor Tony Hills
  70. Slide 44
  71. Councillor Tony Hills
  72. Slide 45
  73. Slide 46
  74. Slide 47
  75. Jyotsna Leney
  76. Slide 48
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  78. Slide 50
  79. Councillor Tony Hills
  80. Councillor Tony Hills
  81. Cllr Anita Jones
  82. Jyotsna Leney
  83. Cllr Anita Jones
  84. Councillor Tony Hills
  85. Cllr Laura Davison
  86. Jyotsna Leney
  87. Councillor Tony Hills
  88. Folkestone & Hythe Officer
  89. Councillor Tony Hills
  90. Jyotsna Leney
  91. Councillor Tony Hills
  92. Cllr John Wing
  93. Councillor Tony Hills
  94. Slide 51
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  96. Slide 53
  97. Microphone D
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  100. Slide 56
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  103. Slide 59
  104. Cllr Paul Thomas
  105. Microphone D
  106. Cllr Paul Thomas
  107. Councillor Tony Hills
  108. Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly
  109. Microphone D
  110. Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly
  111. Microphone D
  112. Councillor Tony Hills
  113. Ms Karen Weller
  114. Microphone D
  115. Councillor Tony Hills
  116. Cllr Anita Jones
  117. Microphone D
  118. Councillor Tony Hills
  119. Councillor Tony Hills
  120. Slide 60
  121. Microphone A
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  132. Slide 71
  133. Councillor Tony Hills
  134. Cllr Rich Holgate
  135. Councillor Tony Hills
  136. Cllr Rich Holgate
  137. Councillor Tony Hills
  138. Councillor Tony Hills
  139. Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly
  140. Microphone A
  141. Cllr Laura Davison
  142. Cllr Paul Thomas
  143. Microphone A
  144. Councillor Tony Hills
  145. Cllr Mike Blakemore
  146. Councillor Tony Hills
  147. Microphone C
  148. Cllr Laura Davison
  149. Councillor Tony Hills
  150. Ms Karen Weller
  151. Councillor Tony Hills
  152. Cllr Paul Thomas
  153. Microphone C
  154. Councillor Tony Hills
  155. Cllr Alan Martin
  156. Microphone C
  157. Ms Karen Weller
  158. Councillor Tony Hills
  159. Webcast Finished
Slide selection

Councillor Tony Hills - 0:00:08
Good evening, and welcome to the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, the Crime
and Disorder version.
This meeting will be webcast live to the internet.
For those who don't wish to be recorded or filmed, you will need to leave the chamber.
The members and officers speaking at the meeting
it's important that the microphones are used
so viewers of the webcast and others in the room
may hear you.
Would anyone with a mobile phone please switch it
to silent mode as they can be distracting.
And I would like to remind the members
that although we will have strong opinions
or matters of under consideration,
it is important to treat members and officers
and public speakers with respect.

1 Apologies for Absence

Okay, right, apologies for absence.
Thank you, Chair.
Mr Jake Hamilton - 0:01:01
We have apologies from Councillor Chapman.

2 Declarations of Interest

Councillor Tony Hills - 0:01:04
Right, declarations of interest.
Do members of the committee declare an interest and have an interest in disposable, significant
or voluntary?
No?
Okay, thank you.

3 Minutes

Councillor Tony Hills - 0:01:19
The minutes to consider and approve of the correct record.
the minutes of the meeting held on 27th of September 2026.
Are we content with those minutes?
Agreed.
Agreed, thank you.

4 Minutes of the Finance and Performance Sub-Committee

Minutes of the Finance and Performance Subcommittee
did consider and prove as a record, correct record,
the minutes of the meeting held on 29th of September.
Councillor Martin, do you want to say any words about them?
As chairman?
Are they?
Cllr Alan Martin - 0:01:52
No, so they are correct minutes, as far as I can see,
when I read through them.
And they nicely summarise actually what we discussed.
Obviously it's the start of a new year for our KPIs
and for our finances, so early days and a few topics
for us to work on, but nothing particular to raise here.
Well, they're a good, considerable and a good read.
They are indeed.

5 Annual Review of Folkestone & Hythe Community Safety Partnership Plan 2025-28

Councillor Tony Hills - 0:02:17
Right, beyond the number five, the main meat of the meeting, the Addaway View of Foulks
and Hives Community Safety Partnership Plan 2528.
The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 places the staff of the judge and local authorities,
police, and key partners to reduce crime, disorder, and antisocial behaviour.
So in their communities by working in partnership with the creation of Community Safety Partnerships, CPS,
under this legislation, responsible authorities are required to implement community safety plans.
Once a year, this committee, the Odry and Scrudney Committee, acts as a crime and disorder committee to scrutinise the work of the partnership,
and we will receive updates from the Create Key subgroups lead on activity following the
second of the three -year CSP partnership plan 2028. Are you okay with that? Any questions?
Ms Karen Weller - 0:03:23
Then we'll kick off with Karen. Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. Yes, we're asking that
the council receive a note the report of October 26,
and also to receive the presentations from the partners.
The annual review, so it's a three year plan.
It's the second of the three years,
and we will provide updates from each partner
to show what we've actually been dealing with
and what we're looking at going forward.
I would first like to introduce Sarah Whiteley,
who's only been with us for six months
and has made some fantastic work already within the team.
And over to you for your presentation.
Thank you, Karen.
Yeah, as Karen mentioned, my name's Sarah Whiteley
and I am the new Senior Community Safety Officer
for Folkestone and Hyde Council.
These are just some of the initial parts
to show you who our statutory partners are.
And we do have most of them in the room with us tonight.
And they will be giving separate presentations
as the evening goes on to be able to give you an overview
of how we've been performing this year.
So as you can see, this is our main structure.
So this shows you how all of the different subgroups
feeding and this is how we get all of our information through. The Community Safety
Unit, as it says there, is the operational arm of the Community Safety
Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:05:06
Partnership, so anything that comes through that will actually be then led
on by myself and my colleague Tara in the Community Safety Unit. This just
quickly outlines who our sub -chairs are. So obviously we have the Community
safety unit, we have health and well -being,
so we have Joyce and Daisy in with us today.
The safeguarding and domestic abuse,
we've got Rebecca Button and Sam O 'Connor.
And with our crime and community resilience,
we've got Inspector Carlo Capozzi and
Kath Meysen from the probation service.
You should have all got your
executive summary of the strategic assessment,
which looks at various parts of the district
and the various figures that make that up.
So I've pulled out a couple of things
that I think are important to show you all
and to demonstrate where we've been working in those areas.
So first of all, I wanted to look at the population
and deprivation and unemployment.
As you can see, the population's pretty much stayed the same
over the last 10 years.
It's seen a small growth, but actually,
it's remained fairly steady.
We are the second smallest Kent district.
So obviously, we have 12 other local authorities.
We are the second smallest,
but we are the third most deprived.
When I was looking through the statistics,
it shows that Faxon Hyde is now ranked 79
out of 317 local authorities.
So we are in the top half of the most deprived local authorities in the country.
So the way that they work out deprivation is not just on one thing.
So there's a number of things that work out into what makes an area deprived.
So it will look at income, employment, education, health, crime, any barriers to housing and
services and living environments.
So to see that we now in Faxon and Hyde
are in that top half, and I think it even works out
that we're in the top 10 % of local authorities
in deprivation.
So how this works out over the whole district,
so the darker in colour that you can see
is the more deprived areas, the brighter the colour,
the less deprived.
So that gives a fairly good indication,
and that I think would probably link in
with some of the crime figures
that we have coming up a bit later.
So the main purple areas in the Foksten End
are around the Foksten Harbour and the Foksten Central,
and then as we work down, we've got a lot
around the Marsh area as well.
But I think that gives a really, really good overview and a really good representation
of how much the district varies and what a mixed area we have in the district.
One of our key areas is looking at violence against women and girls.
These figures are from January to December 2025.
They're actually pretty static with the year before as well,
so there isn't much change in those figures,
and we are the fifth lowest out of all the 12 districts
as well, so we are consistent on that front.
Obviously the figures do look quite stark
when you see them there, and there are peaks
that will come about, so in particular on this one,
when you're looking in July.
We would suspect that could be to do
with sporting events that are on,
and also it can be affected by the weather.
So, depending if it's really warm,
you might find that there are more
instances reported on that front.
So, just to have a look at some of the work
that we have been doing over in between 2025 and 26.
So our community safety meetings that we do,
they have now had 63 different attendees
that have been coming since January of 2026.
So we're really pleased to see that our partners
are engaging in this process.
Their community safety meetings are an opportunity
for our partners to come together to discuss issues
in the district and work with multiple agencies
to try and put together problem solving for those.
We have been to the independent living centres
across the district.
This came about because we had done a scam event in Hyde,
and some of the feedback we received was that
some of the most affected people by scams
are not able to get to some of these larger locations,
So we decided to take them to the independent
living centres directly so we could engage
with those residents who were already there.
So we worked with colleagues within trading standards
and their safeguarding team, and they were able
to do some events with us.
And we were able to talk to them about fraud and scams,
give them advice and practical assistance
on how to spot scams and how to stay safe,
and where to go if they needed help,
if they thought they had actually been a victim of a scam.
We gave out a number of products as well to help them,
to protect them from being scammed,
which included card holders,
where it meant that the card details
couldn't be read from them,
being able to give out pouches to keep their car keys in
to reduce the chances of keyless car theft.
And they were overall very well received.
During the times that we were there,
we did engage with four residents
who were actively being scammed at the time.
So we were able to offer them assistance,
signpost them to agencies who could actually help them
with that and provide the advice and support
that they needed for those scams
that they actually had been part of.
We've got another scam event happening in AGK in Hive on Friday.
We are partnering with NatWest Bank on this particular occasion and we are using their
education team to provide some talks to members of the public about, again, how to stay safe
from scams, how to spot a fraud, being safe online and online banking.
They are very, very happy to work with us.
They really want to get that message out there
about how the banks can help them
and how they can provide support for people
if they feel like they have had money taken from their account
or that they've been scammed in some way
and they now have money missing.
In that event, we're expecting 25 other partner agencies
to come alongside us and with us on that.
We've got partners such as community safety wardens.
We will be having trading standards there.
We've got the Kent Police Scam Safe team
who will be there with us,
and a number of other people who we work with quite widely,
and they're always ready to support us in those things.
Yesterday, we were down in New Romney at Hub on the Beach,
doing a cost of living event.
Again, we had 25 partners there,
all from all different areas,
including the benefits department, housing,
examples of the National Energy Association,
so to give advice about how they could stay warm
in their homes as well.
So again, really good event, really good engagement,
and just a snapshot of some of the things
that we do across the year.
So as part of some of the things we do,
we do lots of community events.
So if I can pass over to Tara,
who's gonna give us a little bit of an overview
of some of the events that we have done.
Look at that.
So I kicked off the year with a VOG event
which I worked with Carlo's team on in Bufary.
Had super, super engagement, lots of people spoken with,
there you go, 40 people engaged with.
Promoted measures being taken to tackle Borg
and partners including Kent Police, Rising Sun,
Home Start and Mel from Ashford Mediation
who we do a lot of work with.
Yeah, really good engagement and good place to stand.
And then this was Sarah's very first day.
She came to the office and I dragged her out straight away.
So I was approached by a counsellor in Hive
who had done a lot of research around Hive
to say that Hive has got quite high figures
in domestic violence.
And she said, would you be looking to,
could you work with us?
Would you be willing to do a stand?
So I said, yeah, absolutely.
So I arranged a stand and called it a domestic violence stand.
Given the area, I thought it was,
I wanted to change the title to say, anyone can approach,
anyone can engage.
So we had Rising Sun.
We had the KCC wardens,
we had counsellors,
some people from my own team.
Again, raised awareness about domestic violence,
had some good engagement,
and yeah, it was a good day.
In the summer, we worked with Trading Standards and Kent Police,
looking across the district to engage with businesses
to cheque for compliance for tobacco and vape products.
We also used the Fates and Hyde licencing team as well
to go out and cheque on the licence premises
to make sure that they were adhering
to their licence conditions as well.
As you can see, their immigration came out as well,
and so it was a real multi -agency effort
across the district to ensure that all of the shops
were adhering to everything they needed to.
and there had been three seizures made.
So seven premises visits, three seizures of illegal tobacco
and vapes from premises across the district.
And then this was our first scam event
at Age UK, Hire for Mimminge.
It was a really, really, really good event.
Again, we had 20 stands.
Nat West Bank approached us and said,
we'd love to give a talk.
Really, really good audience engagement.
Probably one of the best events I've done
in terms of the public attending and getting the advice.
Great partnership working.
I have built up a real good partnership network
who are very, very willing to engage
and support the work that we are doing,
and community safety.
But yeah, we spread the message, supported lots of people,
and again, it was a really good event.
And lastly, we engaged with the police
and other multiple agencies when we engaged
in some grade safety stops.
So it gave us a good opportunity to engage with the public.
Our licencing team were able to cheque taxis
across the district.
Our environmental enforcement team
were able to cheque for waste carriers
to ensure that they got all the correct licencing.
And during the course of the day,
there was multiple vehicles seized,
lots of different traffic reports issued.
And we were looking at problems from illegal tints
on windows to problems with people's tyres.
Like I say, to people not having the correct licences
to be carrying waste.
So it was a good engagement across many, many agencies,
and it was a good opportunity to get out there
and talk to the public.
And most of them really support this type of work.
They want to make their community safe.
They want to take off the road nuisance cars,
e -bikes, e -scooters, that type of thing.
So this type of event is actually very, very worthwhile.
So, I'm going to say this very quickly,
because as Karen said, I'm very good at waffling.
So, back in 2023, sat at home one day, working from home,
set up an event, got home from a holiday,
had 35 paid partner agencies at my first stand.
So, as you will see on there,
lots of different companies,
and through lots of hard work and good partnership engagement
we are now up to 353 partners.
that I work with across the whole of Kent.
And honestly, I say it from the heart,
I could not do my job without them,
and they all do really good work.
Just to say, this is actually just a little snapshot
of all the different partner agencies that we work with.
They are many and varied, and they do absolutely mean
that we can do the job that we can do
by partnering with these different people.
They will all come to us, and they will all be able
to help us with different things.
So we are very, very grateful to all of our partners
who do come and support us with many, many things that we do.
So moving on quickly, obviously, as Karen said at the start,
we are the second year into our community safety partnership
plan.
If people haven't seen it before,
it is available on our website.
And this does cover all of the work that we do within the CSU.
The priorities that you can see there are many and varied,
and these are the priorities for all of the partners
within the Community Safety Partnership.
If it was just left down to myself and Tara to do this work,
we wouldn't be able to get all of these areas
covered off at any point.
So being able to work in the partnership
is really, really effective,
because we can actually then have more of an impact
on these priority areas.
So we do have our four main priorities
when it comes to the community safety unit.
And we mainly look at antisocial behaviour.
That is our core role within the community safety unit.
And it is one of those things
that if you can tackle things early,
it can help to stop it escalating
into wider criminal activity.
So we work really hard to ensure that people can report into the council as easily as possible
and to try and make sure that we can work with our partners to tackle that antisocial
behaviour before it escalates up any further.
But no plan can stay static and although we have this plan in place, we do have to continually
look to the future and look to where our hotspot areas are
and what emerging trends are coming up.
So we have lots of plans for the future.
We've already been planning everything for next year.
And we are looking to kind of build upon
lots of the successes that we've had this year already.
And so we will continue to build on those successes
and continue to build on the networking
that we have done with all of our partner agencies.
So one of the things that we have brought in as a change
since I've been in post is changes to our
multi -agency meetings, which now happen once a month
and they're now in person.
And I think they have led to a greater engagement
and better networking between all the teams.
And it enables us to put aside that time and that space
to be able to talk about particular issues
that are coming about within the district.
In the last two weeks, I've implemented access
to an intelligence database, so we in community safety
and in other areas of the council, we can start looking
at and identifying cross -border activity,
and this will help us to have closer work in
with our neighbouring local authorities as well.
It can also help us build up profiles of offenders
and we will see many of those across
our environmental enforcement colleagues
and alongside working with the police as well.
I think, as I said, it's only been in place for two weeks.
We will continue to use that and it will continue
to shape and focus the work that we are doing in the future.
We will continue to have more public engagement events.
We need to continue to raise our profile with the public
about the Community Safety Unit, what they do,
what we do, and how people can engage with us.
I think that is gonna be the most important thing
that we do as we go through the year ahead.
We do also work with our Prevent colleagues.
I believe that they're gonna do a separate presentation
to you at some point, but we very much do get involved
in the work that they are doing in attending channel panels
and being involved in all of the things
that they put in place.
It's an ever -changing environment that they're working in
and they will continue to keep us up to date on training
to make sure that we've got the relevant information
to keep us at the forefront of the work
that's going on there.
And then you'll be pleased to know that is it.
So if anyone has any questions,
I'll be happy to take any questions that you have.
Yeah, I think you did a great job there, by the way.
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:23:55
It's very comprehensive.
Lots going on.
Okay, Paul.
Peter, who's up first?
Who was first, Peter?
Cllr Paul Thomas - 0:24:07
Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly - 0:24:08
Thank you so much, Councillor.
Thank you for all the work that you do.
I've been to some of those events
and the number of agencies and different organisations
that turn up, absolutely brilliant.
And I was actually going to ask a question
about how you're going to involve the public more,
because when I go to those events,
it's usually the agencies and it will be wonderful
for the public to know what's available
because the breadth of things are available
absolutely amazing.
So I'm glad to hear that you're doing that.
And congratulations on the work that you're doing
around the scamming.
I bet those people, those four people or so
who were caught during that session
really, really appreciate the fact that you were there.
And one of the things I wanted to ask about was,
I can see that you're focusing on the older demographic
when it comes to scanning, but have you got any ideas
about how you're going to sort of widen the scope?
Because a lot of people who are not older are scammed also.
Most of the time they're reluctant to make it obvious
because they feel like it shouldn't happen to them,
it's supposed to happen to older people.
But also thinking about younger people as well
and things like AI and social media and scanning
in regards to that, do you have any plans
to actually go into schools and go into other locations apart from just with the older demographic.
Thanks.
Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:25:33
We do have the schools roadshow that are happening and they will be happening this year from
January to March covering the seven schools in the Folkestone District and they will be
covering those sorts of areas as well including about how to stay safe from scams.
A lot of young people are victims of scams.
It can be via their gaming console.
It can be via AI and on their social media as well.
So we are looking to put that work in place via the schools.
Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly - 0:26:03
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:26:04
Excellent. Thank you.
OK, Paul, you're next.
Yeah, thank you, Shani.
Cllr Paul Thomas - 0:26:11
I just want to say thank you very much for the communication,
the regular newsletters that we get that are disseminated to the councils
and then down to councillors and out and on notice boards and other things.
That's fantastic.
And so, I think they're really appreciated,
because again, they tend to be very focused.
And it's a good communication tool
for members of the public.
The road safety stops.
I know Steve Putland puts a lot of stuff out
on my community voice, and tends to be,
this is what we've been doing, and this is what we found.
And that's really good,
because that gets out to so many people.
And they know, it's active policing, isn't it?
what people want to see, this is the things that genuinely concern them as well.
So I just want to say thank you very much for that.
I do have a couple of questions.
One I sent in in advance, and it's around antisocial behaviour,
so I'm not sure if you're going to answer it or pen police.
And this is to do with local youth gathering in organised groups.
We had an incident in New Romney, or potentially anyway,
a dispersal order was issued.
But again, it's trying to understand what can we do as councillors, what can we do as a community
to make sure that we get the information to the right authority at the right time
to make sure those things don't happen and don't get out of hand.
Because I know in RAI recently they had a very, very similar event with 400 plus youths.
So that's one question.
The second one is you mentioned these multi -agency meetings you have here now.
So can councillors attend those?
Just have a little think about that.
And finally, I know our MP has been pushing for a little while about dodgy shops in high streets.
And again, I think it's one of the things that we get fed back, as I certainly do as a town and a district councillor,
about shops that seem to be fully stocked.
You never see anybody in them, and they seem to be thriving businesses.
or as genuine businesses in the high street are really struggling.
So again, I think it's trying to understand, you know, how does that work?
What's happening in the background to try and understand how these places can carry
on functioning?
So there might be things.
Thank you very much.
Microphone A - 0:28:37
Thank you, Councillor.
You've ruined my presentation entirely.
No, that's a really good point.
I saw your question earlier.
Regarding the New Romney dispersal order that was put in place over the weekend, that was
on the basis of some work done by James and Steve, who had been dealing with an uplift
in ASB from local use, some of whom they've identified.
And also, with it being the Halloween weekend, we know there is generally an increase.
But also we received some information that there was a Snapchat event.
I think it's called about these things, but messages on Snapchat inviting people to a
party at some Martin's field.
It was called Escape Park.
So we received that from a couple of different sources.
And we were able to I was able to then authorise that dispersed water have that there is a
preventative measure.
We were able to identify who the organisers were for intelligence.
and Steve went and done some really good work with that young person, their families, who
were very supportive of the police. It turns out actually someone else encouraged them
to advertise it. But cancelation sent out. Those measures were in place, which was really
good, and we didn't see that event take place. Now, we had a few of those examples this year,
not necessarily near Romy, but across the district. It really is about getting a message
out to people to report things.
We can't do anything unless we know about it, so report things.
If you have concerns or you're hearing things, report it.
And you can do that a number of ways.
You can do it on Kent Online.
You can do it to your local beat officer.
You beat surgeries.
And I'll come to that very shortly.
And it is about getting that message out to our communities
around being supportive.
Kids nowadays, nowadays, it sounds so old, isn't it?
But kids, you know, kids nowadays have access to social media,
much more advanced than probably a fair few of us,
and that's the way things are organised,
but people do know about it,
and there's so many ways now,
and thank you for your plug on My Community Voice,
I'm gonna bore everyone with that again in a bit.
And Steve Putnam is really, really good,
he's probably one of the best officers for that,
and he's updates, and I see them
because I have access to them,
and he's constantly using it,
and he's using it really well,
not just to give information,
but also to ask for communities to engage.
So we are really pushing my community voice because it's a great tool to use.
So yeah, it's really just about raising those concerns and I say you beat officers on the first port of call.
But also via the police, via the council, you know, we share information, we get information
from the CSU, from Sarah and from Sarah.
So yeah, that's the best way to do it.
In relation to the shops, I know that's a question that's been raised before and I think
you had an example up there of one of the operations we do.
And we've done a few times throughout the year in various locations
where we work with trading standards, immigration,
can place and the CSU.
We identified premises that we have intelligence for concerns around.
And we're going to visit those premises, take action.
And we've had some some good successes.
We've had some seizures of, you know, illegal tobacco from cash.
So we've had successes with that.
So again, it's about getting the information in.
If you have concerns, raise them.
I went to the calc recently,
some concerns were raised there.
There's various ways to raise it,
but we will take action where we can
and where there's intelligence information to support that.
If I may, can I just, can I give a shout out
to James as well?
Cllr Paul Thomas - 0:32:19
He actually put a proposal to us that you're on
because we had the issue with all the shop windows
being smashed on the notifications.
So he put a proposal to us and said,
I think this is a good idea to do with the installation of CCTV.
So we've now taken that forward and we're having two, you know,
24 -hour monitored CCTV cameras put in new Romney High Street,
specifically to help with the kind of things that help to identify
who is doing it, where they're coming from, all the rest of it.
So thanks. Thank you, James, for that.
Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:32:49
So in relation to our multi -agency meetings,
unfortunately it's just the portfolio holders
who can come along to those meetings.
But if you do have any concerns,
share them with your portfolio holder
and they will be able to raise them at the meetings.
But, yeah.
It's confidential information shared, isn't it?
It's not that we want to exclude you,
but it's just everybody who attends those
has to sign a declaration
to keep the information confidential.
So it involves individuals sometimes
as well as broader issues.
And we do have in the newsletters that go out,
there is details in there about how to share
with the CSU if you have issues or problems that you want the council to look at.
So that is contained within there as well.
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:33:37
Right. Rich.
Cllr Rich Holgate - 0:33:42
Thank you, Chair. What a wonderful presentation. Sorry. Excuse me. Thank you so much for all
your hard work in putting it together. And just on the example of the dispersed order,
Cllr Rich Holgate - 0:33:50
it's just incredible the invisible work that goes on in around organising like
the special order everything in around that and that's just incredible so and
it's often I recognise thank you so much and full disclosure I do work in tech
and AI so forgive my bias around it by the councillor and a coup for Kelly asked
around the I suppose shared my concern was around like the lack of direct
acknowledgement on the threat of AI and the increasing threat of AI and how it will influence,
I suppose, the content, the programme content to all the audiences that you speak with.
You kind of addressed that in buzz.
Also, you may be curious on our side, how are we using new technologies, both maybe
in the police as well, to tackle some of this, just be interested to know.
And then two other questions.
The scrutiny of high street shops has now been dealt with, but it was the biggest blocker.
I wonder what's the biggest block to reaching more people?
Because it's just such an incredible network
and opportunity.
And I was just like, is there one magic bullet
that will get engagement more?
I'm sure it's a collection of things,
but just curious, what's the biggest block
in reaching more people?
I would say actually the biggest block is capacity.
Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:35:04
There was only two of us in the community safety unit.
And for a long time, it was just Tara on her own
being able to do all these incredible things.
I can't take any credit for a lot of these things
because I've only been in post for six months.
So capacity is a big issue, and in my long -term plan,
it would be to try and increase the size of the team.
If this is what we can do with one and a half people,
imagine what it'd be like if we could increase that team
just by one more, and I think that would have
a massive impact upon the district.
Okay, thank you for that.
Any more questions?
Paul.
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:35:45
You can go if you like.
Cllr Alan Martin - 0:35:51
So echo what everyone else said,
brilliant, brilliant report,
and there's so much amazing work that goes on.
I'm sure lots more beyond what you've covered tonight.
I had three questions.
One, a very short one.
On that deprivation map you showed,
there was a very specific blip in the centre of what looked like the Romley Marsh.
I couldn't work out where it was. I was just curious to see...
Are you a church?
Well, I did wonder.
How's my church?
Is that the green area there that you can see?
Is that what you were saying? Is the blip or the darker blue?
So the green is least deprived, the darker blue colours are most deprived.
What's that small thing in the middle of the...
It's probably not, but it is very large.
It's quite lit.
No, it's too far away from the location.
We'll find out.
Not entirely sure, but yeah,
we'll find out exactly where that area is, yeah.
I've got a job to do, but that's not really...
Yeah, no, I can't...
Brooklyn, is it?
Brooklyn?
It might be.
I don't, yeah, I don't know.
I mean, I assume there's some data behind the graph,
I guess another way of asking the question would be quite good to see the data behind it actually.
I'd just be curious.
Juanita's having a look on Google Maps.
So, yeah, thank you for that.
So on violence against women and girls, as you say, those figures are really stark when you actually see them for your local area
and you see the numbers of them.
I know this is a topic we spend a bit of time on
in the prevent session, but can you remind me
what the kind of range of offences are
that fall into that category,
and maybe talk about what level of severity they need to be
to be reported within that,
just to sort of put into context
the high number of cases that we're seeing there?
Do you want to talk about that?
Without seeing where that data's from,
Microphone A - 0:38:22
I can't really answer what that covers
because it could include, and this is what I just asked,
is whether that includes domestic violence as well,
or is it just the stuff that occurs out and about
in the day, maybe strangers.
I don't know without, I haven't seen that data,
so I don't know, I can't answer that.
Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 0:38:44
What I can do, I can go back to the data
and I can find out how that is recorded
and under which parts that's recorded,
and I can get back to you on that.
Microphone A - 0:38:54
If I may, the early night I made on that data
was the spike in the summer period there.
I know, you know, often that is attributed
to sporting events.
We had the World Cup in the summer,
which I think now has been sort of ruled out
as a bit of a myth.
But what we do have here in Folkestone
and on the coast is we have an influx of visitors
from out of the district out of the county.
And we know that there is a spike in fine skins
from the girls, domestics for instance,
that are reported to us,
particularly when we had the bursting open,
500 plus rooms, lots of visitors,
cheap accommodation, people come down,
and we would have a fair amount of reports from there
and in and around.
So I think that spike can be answered, as Sarah pointed out, a number of factors.
The weather, definitely, the weather, alcohol, and then yes, sporting events will sidetrack that.
But also we do see a spike in the summer months. So that's what I can answer. What I can't answer
is whether that just relates to independent fences or includes domestic violence as well.
So thank you for that and that's I guess what I was interested to understand.
Cllr Alan Martin - 0:40:11
Exactly that breakdown so that would be fantastic, thank you.
And then sort of building on your point around the antisocial behaviour, in particular around New Romney,
but from a slightly different angle.
So James and Steve do an astonishing job on everything actually, but they handle those sorts of situations extremely well.
I've become aware of some issues,
so I haven't had a chance to raise this
with Steve and James yet as a specific,
but I'll raise it as a general question, actually.
So issues in Sainsbury's in New Romney,
so I've heard from some of the staff and customers there
that there is quite a lot of antisocial behaviour
that takes place actually weirdly in the store,
so people cycling, scooting around the shop,
And the managers don't, I understand why they might be
reticent, but it doesn't seem to be dealt with
by the managers.
I don't think there's always a security guard there.
And I know both customers and staff actually fear
for their own safety, but it's also quite a strange look.
And I guess the question I have off the back of that
is the extent to which there's a responsibility on,
in particular large shops and establishments to actually manage their own security.
They have CCTV certainly outside the store, presumably they've got some kind of CCTV inside of the store
and I'd like to think that they would be reporting that type of thing to Stephen James.
The regularity with which that's happening, I'm sensing they're not reporting it to Stephen James as much as they should be
because Stephen James being Stephen James would be in there like a shot.
So I'm just interested in your thoughts on that.
Yes, certainly.
Microphone A - 0:42:08
Yes, whilst it's
the image of it, people cycling around,
scooting around supermarkets, it seems ridiculous.
It does happen.
And not just there.
We have it in the town in Asda.
We've had particular issues with recently.
It is a bit of a national trend.
If you look at some of the things that go on in large cities,
London and other towns,
youth offending and that and social behaviour is unfortunately seem to be commonplace.
And stores don't tend to tackle it or they don't tend to have their security tackle it for a number of reasons.
There's issues obviously with security guards, putting hands on people, kids particularly.
The kids know this and they often antagonise them.
Asda is probably a fine example, I'm sure Sarah will agree,
where actually the kids are goading the security,
and the more the security react, the more the kids enjoy it,
and we've had those conversations with them.
I think you're right, the other issue is reporting.
We have found that a number of fences go unreported
because actually stores, shoplifting, and we come to that,
but shoplifting is a classic one where we engage with stores
and they go, yeah, we've had 10 shoplifting's today,
or yesterday, we didn't report it,
because it just happens.
And that's, and again, unless we're told about it,
we can't do anything about it, and you're right,
Stephen James particularly would be on that,
because they're on all the other stuff with ASB
and the CTV thing we were talking about earlier
is one of the issues they raised to me.
That's really good to know.
So I will raise that to them,
we will go to the store and engage with the store,
talk about the reporting,
talking about what we can do to engage it.
And again, Romley and the more rural areas, if you like,
are one of the topics that we are trying to focus on
the next few weeks lead up to Christmas,
because we know that they,
and again, this is going into what I was going to talk about,
but we know that James and Steve
know do a certain amount on their own.
They're already there a certain amount of time.
So that's why we have Napier Task Force,
and that's why we would task them to do that,
particularly with things like that,
because we'll go where the intelligence tells us
there are problems that need to be solved
and that's what they're for.
So thank you for raising it.
I'll make sure it goes back to James and Steve.
But yeah, it's not, unfortunately it's not an unusual trend.
As unusual it may seem, it does take place.
Yeah, perfect.
And as I said, I was gonna raise it with Steve anyway,
Cllr Alan Martin - 0:44:39
and I can give him some more detail on it,
but feel free to raise it.
I just thought it was good to air it here
because it builds on your point.
Thank you.
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:44:47
Right. Do we have any more questions?
Laura.
Thanks, Chair. Yeah.
Cllr Laura Davison - 0:44:56
I mean, on that last point, it might be worth engagement with the trade union
that represents staff there as well as another kind of partner organisation.
I was just going to also thank you for the presentation.
I think the growth in the number of partner organisations
that you talked about is phenomenal and really impressive.
and I'm really glad you focused on antisocial behaviour
and how we can make sure that people know
and it is as accessible as possible
for people to raise concerns
because I think it can be difficult if you're a resident
and things are happening close to where you live
and you're not quite sure,
maybe it's multiple different agencies
who might be involved in trying to see
how people can work together to solve those things
can be a challenge when you're on the outside
of those organisations and you're not quite sure how they work. So I think when people
raise it with us as councillors, which they regularly do, councillors being really clear
about how you helped to flag those things and coordinate those responses to try and
tackle it is a really kind of basic but important thing that actually makes a real difference
to people's lives in the district. So thanks.
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:46:05
If everybody is happy with that, I will move on to the next section.
I am sure by the time we get to the police, it will all be gone.
Jovsner.
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:46:20
Jyotsna Leney - 0:46:26
Good evening, everyone.
What I thought I would do is give you a quick run through of some preventative and early
intervention work that we are doing, which from the priorities of the partnership, community
safety partnership, health and wellbeing and young people are crosscutting themes. As a
council, we are investing a lot of money now in sports development and youth development.
So this year we've started a new programme called Active Lives on the Marsh.
And this is working with the Marsh Leisure Centre and other sports providers.
And there's a number of angles to it.
One is to create an asset list of all the sports facilities around on the Marsh.
So making our links with football clubs, cricket clubs, walking clubs, park and run, anything like that.
build that asset list and engage with those organisations.
And then to work with the local community around barriers
to accessing facilities.
What more can we do to make families and vulnerable young people
access sporting activities?
It might not be sports.
It could be things like just walking, cycling, that kind of thing.
And then to engage with specific cohorts as well.
the SEND group, NEET groups, Disadvantaged Families,
and breaking that work down into a number
of manageable pieces.
And we have the Sports Trust, who have been commissioned
to work very closely with the Marsh Ninja Centre
to deliver this for us.
And I've had meetings with councillors already
with some great ideas on how we can join up
with running clubs and various others to deliver something.
For the people of the Marsh where you've got
A huge number of poor health outcomes,
which has driven some of the background to this work.
High levels of obesity,
especially in some age groups of young children.
And obviously, a whole load of other pressures
in terms of anxiety and problems
that people see on the marsh.
The idea is also to drag and drop
some existing programmes of work.
that are successful here in Folkestone.
We're going to deliver them on the marsh.
So the first one that's been delivered is Little Athletes.
And the programme manager from the Sports Trust
who's doing this work has spoken to the primary schools.
They're all really excited about it.
And it's like a mini Olympics for toddlers
and mums and dads go along as well.
And that's going to be starting on the 7th of November
on a weekly basis at the Marsh Leisure Centre.
I think it's nine till 12.
So that's the first drag and drop session.
But it's not just about delivering sessions of play
and activity, it's more about engaging with people
and understanding what they need to do.
Moving on, we had some sports money
that various people big for,
and Hawkins Community Centre came up
with an active North Downs project.
So on a similar vein, they're gonna do strands of work
around active late life, families and young people,
inclusive active communities, which is fabulous
because stretching their offer out to wider parts
of the North Downs and encouraging more people
to come along is another good thing.
And we don't want the North Downs to be forgotten either.
So we've now got good provision,
we're developing provision on the marsh,
we've got it in Folkestone and developing it
on the North Downs area as well.
I just thought I'd highlight the fact that Sports Trust already run Active 50s Little Athletes.
Shred Club is Foulton 51 and it's that £1 for residents of the district that can access the skate park
and supports that and other activities.
In terms of youth development, there's some new work that we're doing with Strange Cargo.
It's a link to their Sharry Valley Festival.
they already did work placements for 72 young people
from secondary schools, but we're doing a little bit more
about building resilience, self -esteem, confidence,
in and around that, and we're also gonna be showcasing,
we're developing a YouTube video about
what the district council is and the types of jobs
that the district council can offer.
So for the young people, they can see,
actually, there's opportunity in local government,
for example, you know, people often complain,
I don't know what kind of job I want to do, but if we can showcase the variety of work that is out there,
we hope to inspire and get some interest in some of the work that as a local authority these
young people could probably go into. Strange Cargo are also delivering an after -school project,
which is for secondary school pupils, but it's about showcasing different trades with a creative
They have had an electrician go in with the first session,
designing lamps and all sorts of different things.
So again, what do you need to do to get into these trades?
So this is about developing skills in young people
and this all new work for us.
We have been running the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust project
for a few years now,
really important around emotional wellbeing in young people.
The GPs have heard about this
and would like to see us do a lot more around maybe picking up some of the cohorts of young
people they see, not necessarily in their surgeries at a kind of crisis point, but at
a very early stage when parents are going in saying they're unhappy about child's
behaviour and not knowing what to do, could we intervene with the Dane Kelly Homes Trust
rather than a long waiting list for a cancer assessment
or whatever it might be, can we signpost
and get children involved in this project?
So we were looking at a community intervention programme
and putting together a business case and proposal
for the health service to consider,
because in terms of where health are going,
they want to see more delivered in the community.
So it would be a proposal that they would fund in the future.
But as it happens, I've got some money
to do something this year.
However, there's been a bit of a change around the Dame Kelly Home Trust and its charitable
status in that a new organisation has taken over DKHT.
There's a strand of DKHT, but it's good because they're called Leadership Through Sports and
Business and their main focus is on employability skills and skills development in young people.
So there's a lot of future work that we can do with the organisation to develop this work
on.
I just wanted to flag a few other areas of work.
So cost of living work, ongoing, the welfare team doing great work.
On our website, the cost of living document is there,
where people can get benefits advice and other information.
I flagged the Surf Coast Food Partnership because access to food
and we're just doing some work around
anyone needing food over the Christmas period.
Pulled together a diary of where people can go on.
Monday or on Tuesday or Wednesday to get food.
The warm spaces are running from five places in the district,
so the three age -ucators, so to speak, areas.
So you've got Highland image age UK, South Coast age UK,
Romany Marsh community hub running the warm spaces
with food and fuel vouchers.
Citizens' advice, they are, in fact,
Citizens' advice service have just changed their name.
I've got to work with comms around this.
They're going to be called Mid Kent Coast Citizens Advice.
But it was Dover Deal, Citizens Advice Service that have supported us in Folkstone.
And they are running their drop -ins from the Rainbow Centre one day a week
and scheduled appointment another day a week from the Rainbow Centre.
A lot going on in the health and wellbeing world.
There are neighbourhood plans coming down.
This would require a separate session to be given to you by the health teams
from the NHS and KCC Public Health as well.
But our Folkestone and Hyde Health Alliance
is an alliance of partners in the health world
promoting and putting together programmes
that work to address poor health outcomes
and their focus has been on the marsh in actual fact.
And then we continue to work on Armed Forces Covenant
and supporting our Armed Forces community,
not to forget that, and a lot on mental health
and well -being as well.
And so we had the lovely floral beds this summer supporting
our suicide prevention work.
That was the baton of hope that took place.
So it's just a quick counter through on all the other work
that kind of underline, you know,
is it like underlying themes for community safety, generally.
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:55:37
Is it, are we going to hear from Daisy?
That's a shame.
I was hoping to.
I don't have to.
I don't have to.
Aneesha?
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:55:52
I have to say it's brilliant,
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:55:55
all the work that you're doing with youth and sport.
It was really great that Strange Cargo came to the Youth Forum
and they were talking about these employability skills.
They did an excellent presentation.
I was just wondering, obviously that's very fixed and based,
I wonder if there's any plans to kind of feed that out to other parts of the district if we can,
That is really valuable to young people at the moment
because employability is a big issue.
The other question, obviously, talking about the areas
which we are focusing on, it is great that we are focusing
on the marsh and the North Downs, these sporting activities.
I often get the impression that transport can be an issue
because that is why people can't get to these things.
You look at how vast the marsh is and that is why people
can't attend things easily and become involved
in sport teams, are we doing anything
with community busses to help transport people
to these things?
Thank you for that.
Jyotsna Leney - 0:56:53
Yeah, the employability part, I'd love to do more.
I'd like the strange cargo to extend into the marsh
and work from there, but I think it's looking at
what those opportunities are going to be
and looking at future funding.
So definitely on the radar, we can link it
with Dame Callyhose Trust because they,
part of their work is doing a World of Work Day
and I think they do a couple of those
when they're running one of their programmes
so it can join these things up a bit more.
So definitely on the radar.
So thank you for that.
I'm gonna add it to the list of things to do.
Transport, we did think about maybe using
some of the funding for just sports bursaries
that could support transport costs for some people.
Romley Marsh Community Harbour and Hyde and Lumage,
the Age UK busses that they have,
they've said that they are often lying idle
at the end of the day.
So potentially we can try and look at ways
of using existing community type busses,
but it requires drivers.
But one of the things that we want to do is,
what is there near people?
So if, you know, for example, New Church Village Hall,
and there's residents around New Church who are inactive,
because I can't get to Marsh Letter Centre for Transport,
would they go to New Church Village Hall,
and what can we lay on that they would like to do?
So that's the community engagement work
that is going to be developing
and can address some of those transport problems.
But yeah, you know, it's all part of the mix of things
that we need to develop and think about.
but money can be used for transport as well.
I was just going to say there's two amazing community busses
Cllr Anita Jones - 0:58:38
in Highs which are linked with the primary school
and a lot of local groups and they've got a lot
of local drivers, so definitely worth tapping into that too.
And I think New Romley have got some busses too, haven't they?
That can be, yeah, it's drivers.
It's drivers, drivers.
We need to get more of a shout out for drivers
because actually that then makes all these things
come alive, doesn't it?
It is brilliant, again, great work.
Councillor Tony Hills - 0:59:06
There is a good point made about using busses out of hours.
It is so expensive to run.
It is getting the drivers and volunteers and that is not so easy.
Laura, were you next?
Cllr Laura Davison - 0:59:16
Thanks.
I think that approach of looking at what there is in a neighbourhood
is a really good one and would actually pay really good dividends
because I can certainly think of places where the bus services
are not at the level that they should be
and when people are busy and have other things to do,
actually travelling or being able to get to somewhere
is really difficult and obviously in folks at the moment,
we don't have the sports centre open,
so that is a big ongoing challenge
for people being able to look after themselves.
The other thing I was just gonna raise
was just around how the work intersects with work
on thinking about climate change
because you had up there warm spaces,
which obviously are really important,
but also thinking about cool spaces in the summer,
because it's the same challenges
for people being able to afford to cool themselves
and have places to go as it is for warm spaces in the winter.
Actually, that's right.
Jyotsna Leney - 1:00:16
And the community hubs, they can come in here
because actually their buildings
are quite cool in themselves.
So I think they did offer their spaces up,
didn't they, Daisy?
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:00:26
Folkestone & Hythe Officer - 1:00:27
They did, and at least two of them, I think,
said that they had air conditioning,
so it was properly cool, not just sort of cool
designed buildings, but they were very welcoming
over the summer if people couldn't stay
in their own homes because of the heat.
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:00:39
Jyotsna Leney - 1:00:40
We could probably do a bit more messaging around that
through social media and that kind of thing, yeah.
Thank you.
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:00:45
Great.
John?
Thank you, Chair.
Cllr John Wing - 1:00:49
First of all, thanks for all the work you do.
It's fantastic.
I do have one concern about anti -social behaviour.
I truly believe it affects everything.
People's mental health, people don't go out because they are frightened of going out.
I know you are trying to tackle it, but it does concern me.
It doesn't seem to be coming down whether the police speak to that or not.
your little bit as well. It does sort of concern me as well.
And also about the busses, after 7 o 'clock in the evening, you basically can't get anywhere.
It's that late in the evening, especially now in the darker evenings,
you know, people can't go out at that time in the evening, but thankfully we do appreciate all the work.
And the way it's all coordinated as well is fantastic to see.
Thank you.
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:01:45
Right, any more questions or should we move on? Okay.
Next on my list is Rebecca Button,
Integrative Heavenly Services Manager at KCC with Sam.
Microphone D - 1:01:56
Hi everyone, I'm Rebecca Button,
I'm the co -chair of the Safeguarding Domestic Abuse
subgroup, and I'm Sam Iacone,
the CEO from Homestar Chef, right?
Co -chair.
So you can see there, our subgroup covers all things
safeguarding children and adults,
and also domestic abuse.
Each district has a domestic abuse forum,
so we've amalgamated ours into a subgroup
with a safeguarding.
You can see there are the things we cover
as domestic abuse, prevent mental health,
drug and alcohol services, children safeguarding,
adult safeguarding, and we talk about everything,
the people who are around the table,
who work in those organisations and cover those things.
We look at training opportunities,
So we identify, do we need to raise awareness,
say for domestic abuse, do we need to go into
certain agencies, you know, to deliver training,
who can do that, how we can do that,
and do we need any funding for that,
or can we do that as part of the professionals involved.
We link really closely with Tara and Sarah
and Carlos' subgroups, because everything feeds
into all of that, and then again into the main
community safety partnership.
Local policy updates, there's always things changing,
so we make sure that everyone, for each agency,
whatever's happening with their policies,
so that we know where we can tap into those.
And service developments and changes,
because we know funding changes,
we know the different priorities,
so we make sure that we've got that information as well,
that we can share out to the wider partners.
Information sharing, multi -agency working,
we do a lot around that, so at the moment
it's the Serious Organised Crime Week,
we've got the Adult Safeguarding Week,
we've got the 16 Day of Action in terms of domestic abuse,
so we make sure that all of that is spread out
and advertised and shared and we all get involved.
Emerging community needs and risks,
so we look at themes locally, we look at themes nationally,
what the thinking is, what's working, what's not,
whether we need to tap into other things.
And then referral pathways and support services.
So we look at the Kent and Medway Domestic Abuse Services,
their website, and look at what's happening,
and where all the information is.
There's so much vast information out there
that everybody needs to share.
So making sure those referral pathways are clear,
you know where you're going, you know where you can do signpost people to and that support is available to the people we work with.
We also work with facilitating the one stop shop and keeping our eye on how that's progressing.
There's a little snapshot there of data for you,
just to give you an idea of how the One Stop shop
supports the community.
So from March to May, we had 29 total attendees.
And a lot of the support that we give
is through IDRA services, solicitors, housing, DWP.
We've had a lot of people attending who,
So, sorry, could I have the next slide as well, please?
There's a lot of people attending
from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds.
And just to give you, like I said, just look there,
people found that it was really supportive and helpful.
Have you got the next one?
Thank you.
So yes, the One Stop Shop generally is,
we have found that we've got a lot of older people attending
and we've now got hourglass on board who come monthly
to give sessions and support sessions.
But anybody can come into One Stop Shop
and receive support around their domestic abuse issues.
As far as project empowerments involved,
we've got Phoenix is currently being facilitated.
And we're now doing it jointly with Rising Sun.
And we've got 13 on the current programme, we're in week seven.
So that's really successful.
And it's really nice to get face to face as well.
we feel it has a much more positive impact
of people sharing their experiences
and what they're experiencing.
The main majority of support that people are asking for
is around domestic abuse,
but we have a lot of single parent families
and a lot of mental health issues
that are occurring at the moment
that we've seen a rise in.
next slide.
So that is it.
And then we have the youth conferences that we are involved in.
Is it on?
Okay.
I just want to talk about the year 9 road shows.
So we do this every year.
There is a variety of partners who help us out with these.
So it is delivering a road show to all the youth
year nine students in the seven secondary schools
in the district.
We used to do it at the Leescliffe Hall,
there's a big conference, but actually we felt us
going to the schools was much more productive.
So the program's really interactive, lots of workshops,
there's some really hard hitting stuff for our year nines,
bearing in mind they're all 13.
And we talk about knife crime, we have a presentation
on healthy relationships, prevent radicalisation,
domestic abuse, drug and alcohol, safe travel,
cyber crime, sex torture and online exploitation,
and zero tolerance of violence and abuse.
So all of the key things that are affecting our young people.
It's very lively if you came along.
There's in between the really hard hitting sessions,
There's a local musician we have who came from a local
secondary school from the area.
There's music, there's storytelling, there's lots of
shouting, dancing, clapping, and then there's this really
sort of the sessions that are interactive with quite
hard hitting information.
So we look at short term outcomes, medium term and long
We have safeguarded young people in the conferences
who have come and told us about things that are going on.
It is consistent, preventative education.
So what happens is all of the agencies there will then,
all their details will be given to the safeguarding leads
and the pastoral staff and head teachers, et cetera.
And they can then go and get some bespoke training
so if they think they need some more information
around drug and alcohol they can get with you, the organisation that talks about drug
and alcohol for our young people, they can go in and do some bespoke sessions and group
work, individual work, one to one. So it's ongoing referrals, it's also them coming into
our secondary schools to talk into, not just our Year 9 pupils. We target at Year 9 because
of the ages, we don't think any younger at this stage, we need it and we feel that Year
C9 is a good place to start.
It equips young people with the knowledge
and confidence and resilience
and risking and seeking and making positive choices.
But it also equips the teachers in those schools
to be able to talk about subjects
that they may not have felt comfortable about.
So for example, sextortion, online images,
that sort of thing, prevent and radicalization.
we give them the tools for them to be able to go
and talk to their young people about it,
and also identify.
And our hashtag is, hashtag are you okay,
because it's not only just about thinking,
young people thinking about themselves,
but it's their friends, and you know,
watching out for their friends,
seeing, you know, recognising when young people,
their friends are in trouble,
or that they need some support,
and then knowing what to do with that information,
knowing where to go.
So it's been absolutely, it's been so successful
that the schools at the end of the road show
are asking for the date for the next one.
And yeah, sorry, I didn't get the slice of Sarah enough,
but some of the comments have been really good.
They like the quirkiness, the music, good topics covered.
It was educational, but not lecturing.
We also have Ben who does some mindful meditation
and sort of just to get them into the spot to sort of listen and learn
and then sort of, you know, keep themselves safe.
And yeah, they felt really engaged.
The outside speakers were very informed, informative
and good information on where they can seek support.
and all of the head teachers from all of the schools have really welcomed it and want it every year.
It's over a thousand year nine people. It's been really successful.
Thank you for that. Questions? Paul first.
Thank you very much for that presentation.
Cllr Paul Thomas - 1:12:02
I've just got a question about the project empowerment
required services.
So what are Phoenix and Rising Sun 13?
You mentioned them in there, but there's no link
as to what it actually is, thank you.
Yeah, that's fine.
Microphone D - 1:12:17
So the Phoenix programme is a programme for women to attend.
It's a 12 week programme, and it's around self -help
and healthy relationships, looking after themselves,
choices and options.
It's a Kent programme that was written
with all the domestic abuse services in Kent,
and each of us contributed to separate parts of it.
So it looks at all areas, so it looks at how they're feeling,
how they're interacting with their children,
the impact on children, looking at red flags
around domestic abuse, and it's a really positive programme.
And the collaborators who wrote it,
monitor it and update it, and make sure
that it's all up to date and regular.
But that's rolled out throughout Kent,
but here in Folkestone, our sales home to Star -Chapway,
we do the Phoenix Face to Face,
we take all the referrals for it,
and Rising Sun as well.
So what we've done is, because we work with children
under eight, and they work with parents,
people who are older or not quite children,
we thought it'd be a really good idea to join together
to run the programmes together,
and it makes it more cost effective,
all the resources and all the rest of it.
So we've actually got 13 people
actually attending this course which is the highest we've had for quite a long
time so but it's a really really positive programme because it really gives
the women the tools to move forward because that's what it's about it's
about moving forward with their lives and moving on so sorry what was your
other question?
So, how long do you say that? How are the referrals made?
And it would be useful to see how the data is distributed across the district.
If that doesn't actually then identify factors, I understand if that would be the case.
So again, I think it would be useful for us to see what's the distribution.
That data is collated, so we would be able to get that to you and that's collated by the County Council.
Also, we could give you that data, it's not a secret.
It is a non -service, the one -stop shop,
but we do take the data of why people are there
and what services they're accessing.
So the Project Empowerment,
we are a Montreal organisation registered charity,
and we work with the commission services
and alongside the commission services,
and our services offer one -to -one support in the home,
but also empowerment programmes, as Abner will,
thankfully supported.
So we do a lot of work with women to empower them
to move on from the domestic abuse, the situation,
so they have all that inspirational speakers,
one -to -one support, emotional practical support,
and we're currently funded mainly through the lottery.
And we get funding to make sure that the VOG part of it,
So we support the youth conferences as well.
And also, you know, just providing that service
to empower the women to move forward really.
And then we've got the one stop shop as well,
which is for everybody.
So that is anybody, any age, any, you know,
anybody can attend that.
So we're also supporting those services.
I just want to say thank you very much for the work you do.
Okay, thank you.
Abida.
Cllr Paul Thomas - 1:15:32
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:15:32
Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly - 1:15:33
Yes, so I want to echo that.
Thank you.
I know myself and through personal use of the one -stop shop
that it's absolutely brilliant.
So just a few comments and a few questions.
You said, again, it's about demographics
because the one -stop shop is mostly older people,
but you said, and I wonder how you can extend that
so that you can have younger people attending
if you've considered what you can do in relation to that.
I used to be a teacher, so I know that there is
a really awful situation in schools in regards to abuse,
child on child abuse, but also child on parent abuse
as well, also there's an increase in technology
facilitated abuse and the use of AI and things like that
for abuse, so I wonder, because one of the strands
that you spoke about was training,
what sort of training you're providing
so that people are aware of that,
the people who are providing the support,
if they are aware of that sort of abuse
and how to handle cases such as that.
The other thing as well, I'm really glad to hear
about the year nine roadshow,
because I was going to ask about that
and the positive feedback that you've got from that.
It's a brilliant idea and I'm so glad
the schools are so engaged.
Again, I was really happy to hear
that you have ongoing referrals,
but of course that's only the people who,
the children who attend and the children
who are part of that on that day.
So if they're not in year nine
and they're in higher years, for example,
how do they get access to that information?
Because in year nine, by the time they get to year 11,
year 12, year 13, they might have forgotten
all of what you did in the year nine roadshow.
How do those children get access to this as well?
I think that's really important.
And then let me just cheque if that was the last thing
which I wanted to say.
Oh yes, and I wanted to know,
as Councillor Thomas asked earlier,
if councillors can actually attend these meetings,
and I can completely understand if they can't,
but if they can't, how can we feed into these meetings
as well, thank you.
Microphone D - 1:17:55
Okay, so one stop shop, the reason we've got hourglass
involved it just seems to be a trend so we do have a complete mixture of
ranges that are 10 one -stop shop and it does seem to be quite known now in
the area as a service that will see anybody so anybody can walk in off the
street to get that support but like I say I think it was just something that
we'd noticed a spike in so we thought well actually we need to be providing a
specific service here if we can and our best have come along and been because we
We do have a range of services.
Like I say, there's a range of mental health,
we've got mind, we've got, you know,
there's a lot of services that are 10,
but I just sort of mentioned hourglass
because we had noticed that.
Because we react to need, so if there's a specific need,
then we will try to make sure that we cover that as well.
So yes, that's the range of access with one stop shop.
Sorry, I should have wrote your own questions down.
No, I completely understand that you react to need,
but also it's important to be proactive and preemptive.
And that's why I was talking about the technology
facilitated abuse and the increase in AI
and also in cell culture amongst young people
and the fact that there is a major issue
with sexual assault amongst young people as well.
I mean, we do use, we've got safety planning
and tech abuse advice on our website,
which has got a instant closure
so people can escape from the page and there's no history tracing and stuff.
That's on our personal website.
And we are aware of AI and it's something that we've been planning for this roadshow as well.
So we are aware of the impact.
It did come up last year, didn't it?
In the youth conferences.
So it's something that we are incorporating in the one that's coming up.
So...
And we did do a conference around technology assisted.
We got two researchers, one from Kent University and one from Southampton, who have been working together on that.
The professor from Southampton also wrote a book about Incel, so it was really, I mean that's something that we can look at.
We reached about 150 professionals with that.
So we do do that. We do talk in the roadshow around sex torsion, sharing pictures, being scammed, being asked to send images, all they are going to be shared with.
So we do cover that and we also cover the internet. It's a wonderful place but look how quickly we do this brilliant activity that says look how quickly it takes for your picture to get to the other side of the world.
et cetera, so it is really good.
And going to -
When I was a teacher, we used to have a cartoon,
which I think it was called I Saw Your Willy.
And you may laugh, but it really is quite,
it's not hard hitting, but you really get to understand
that one boy just sent a picture,
just onto that chat thinking that it was just temporary.
Somebody took a screenshot and then he's walking home
and everybody's saying, I saw your willy.
and then he gets home and he's got his grandmother
is looking on her mobile and she looks up at him
and he realises that everybody's seen it,
even though it was just a snapshot,
it can actually spread to everyone.
So it's really, really important
that those sorts of things are shared.
In terms of moving it forward,
so we hope that it's enough information
for when you're 13 that you'll move through.
but the idea is for teachers and pastoral and the pH.
Yeah, sorry.
We'll use the stuff that they've learned
in the year nine road shows with the younger years,
as well as the older years.
We had been looking at doing a sort of year 11
and going into, you know, sixth form,
but year 11s are very much, you know, into their GCSEs.
we don't want to disturb that,
there's a lot of pressure on that.
So it's the timing of it,
and we thought that year nine, we could pitch to,
but as the teachers, the majority of the teachers
have done it year on, year on,
that they will be well -versed in it
and be able to then take it into the older age groups.
Certainly the Beacon, we have all year groups there.
We do, yeah.
So there's six formers and there's 18 plus.
So yeah, which it works really well for them.
So yeah, it's really, it's been phenomenal actually,
because we didn't think we'd get the schools,
would be so interested in it, but yeah.
But yeah, we're always developing and evolving it.
So it's a really good thing.
Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly - 1:22:53
And just the attendance of the councillors,
did you?
What the road show?
No, not just the ratio at those meetings.
And I completely understand if it's not appropriate.
The things like Phoenix, he thinks no we don't.
No, not Phoenix.
No, subgroup.
Yeah, I mean I don't know what the...
We don't, in our subgroup, we don't, because there's so many other forums to talk about places and locations and people.
We don't talk about that. We talk about national, local themes, etc.
Microphone D - 1:23:27
So I mean, you know, you can come along and listen to what we're talking about.
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:23:32
Right, any more questions? No? Thank you, Becky and Sam. Sorry.
Ms Karen Weller - 1:23:44
I just wanted to add actually, I don't think Becky does herself justice in this.
When we did the, before we did the road shows,
we did actually do it at the Lees -Cliff Hall,
and we had a group of 600 young people that would attend.
And as time went on, we had more and more partners
that would go around the room,
and we'd have stalls all laid out for them,
and they'd be taken away, half of them,
to speak to the violence reduction unit,
and they'd be asking questions around,
what do you think about this picture,
which might be all made of knives,
and talking about it, et cetera.
Fast forward that on,
we've then actually taken that out on the road
and gone into all the different schools.
And the difference is, is that all of the young people
in that year group can attend.
So there's no restrictions on numbers
because there's only 600 places.
But also the teachers have been able to come in as well,
and they've been able to hear some of the things
that are going on, what's actually being explained,
how people can report things in,
so that even if somebody has missed that particular day,
the teachers are aware of it as well.
And it's a phenomenal programme,
and it's something that we're all incredibly proud of.
But yeah, Becky's been like the instrumental one
to actually get this all running,
so thanks to her for that.
Microphone D - 1:25:07
Right, Nita.
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:25:09
I was just gonna say, as a former secondary school teacher,
Cllr Anita Jones - 1:25:12
I think it's invaluable.
you get subjects of specific teachers
who have to try and teach this stuff.
And as a musician, it wasn't really my strength.
So to have people coming in and teaching this
and doing it from another point of view,
I think that's so valuable to schools.
So the more of that we can do the better.
Okay.
Microphone D - 1:25:35
Can I just say one thing?
It's now gone round the county,
so there's lots of other areas that have been those.
and we did receive a Kent award.
A Kent police award.
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:25:47
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:25:50
OK, we'll move on.
To, I think, Anjali Howard and Kyla Heposik.
Are you a footballer? No, I'm just kidding.
Our Chief Inspector and Inspector. Thank you.
Microphone A - 1:26:09
Thank you, Chair. Good evening, everyone.
Yes, I'm Detective Inspector Carlo Capazzi,
and I lead the Neighbour Policing Team
for folks in the Hive,
and I'm joined by the District Commander,
Detective Chief Inspector, Anjali Howard,
who took over from Mark Hedges earlier this year.
April, I think it was?
April this year.
Mark would probably be here if he could,
if I had told him.
Oh, that's why I didn't tell him,
because he would have been here.
But yes, so we're here to, obviously, run our updates for you,
some of which we have already given, but we'll go through them anyway.
So the first slide here is just explaining the Kent
Police Pledge and Control Strategy, which is for the 26th.
It just shows there that our focus around serious violence, harm,
serious violence and harm,
which incorporates violence against women and girls, domestic abuse
and knife crime, exploitation, child sexual exploitation and child sexual abuse.
child criminal exploitation, modern slavery and human trafficking and then organised an
inquisitive crime which incorporates burglary of the home, drug supply, organised high street crime.
And at the centre of the event we do is our child -centred policing and there it gives
some neighbours and the Kennick Police Pledge which has not changed since we last spoke.
So I'll move on to my team then, the neighbourhood policing team. As I'm sure you will note,
there has been a name change in the last few months.
In September, we changed from the Community Safety Unit.
We are now called the Neighbourhood Policing Team.
There are no changes to what we do.
That's just a falling line with the national picture
of the armed force.
They call them Neighbourhood Policing Teams now.
Although everyone still refers to us and even ourselves
as the CSUs.
so it's gonna take a little bit of time to get that right.
So you'll see there that we are split into two teams
within that neighbourhood policing team.
We've got the beat officers on one side
and the neighbourhood task force on the other.
And they're the beat officers.
They're around about the place in the community,
all priorities, the community engagement,
ASB and problem solving, vulnerability and safeguarding,
intelligence development and reassurance and feedback.
And then our neighbourhood task force
are focusing on offenders and harm,
persistent harm offenders, drug supply and exploitation,
warrants target enforcement,
intelligence led deployments, disruption activity,
and support to our local problems.
So that's just a very brief overview
of what our teams are involved with.
We have one beat sergeant, 12 beat officers,
and on the neighbourhood task force,
We have two sergeants, nine constables and four PCSOs.
I have added a brief of what stop searches and arrests they've done
over the last 12 months, which is actually increasing.
So I printed this or wrote it.
So some good numbers, and that's just for the Naval Policing Team
that doesn't incorporate the other wider teams of district.
You'll also note that the Child Centre Policing team has been removed from the Neighbour Policing
team.
That has now changed.
There is now one centralised team who work under the Strategic Prevention Command across
the three policing divisions in Kent and a central coordination team.
And they're now called the Child Centre Policing Youth Justice team, which is a bit of a mouthful,
to be honest.
So they're a separate team.
They have, I think it's eight police constables and a number of PCSOs that were taken from
the previous Child Centre policing team.
And their approach will be for engagement, early intervention, education and enforcement.
So we have one of our PCSOs has remained working in our districts.
And there's also a PC who is our district as well.
and their work streams will be directed by their own command, not by us.
However, they'll still work with us, we'll still share information, share intelligence and problem solve together.
What that has enabled is that we have inherited an additional sergeant and constables and PCSOs,
sorry not PCSO, constables into the neighbourhood task force.
So we have uplifted the task force and that also means that what we have done here
with Folkestone Hive is that we decided
that we'd split that team into two,
so that gives us better coverage,
both for area and for time -wise.
So across the week now, we have more coverage
from the neighbourhood task force,
and that gives us some really good resilience
when we're problem solving.
As I mentioned earlier, when we're looking at
putting them into different areas across the districts,
we can do that, and we have that coverage seven days a week,
rather than what we had before.
So that's working very well at the moment.
Obviously, the neighbourhood policing team,
which is one element of what goes on for the CSP
and the overwork in the district.
The response team that we have here at Folkestone,
we've got our victim -based crime team,
deal with volume crime.
Then we have our criminal investigation department,
specialist crime groups, and specialist teams as well,
including our rural task force.
and they'll work towards the success of the CSP.
But the neighbour policing team is at the forefront
of the majority of that work,
because they're out there in the community engaging
and doing that work out there.
So, can we move on to the next one please?
So that's just a breakdown of the officers now
on our big team, and some of them have changed
in the last sort of months.
We, people have moved on.
We've got some new names in there.
Harbour Ward, for instance, is a new PC.
Stuart Obad, who was there previously,
has moved on to Australia.
So he's, he only mentioned it once or twice,
to be honest, in the last 12 months.
And he's not stopped texting and messaging everyone
in the office to learn how great he is
and about his swimming pool that he now has in his home.
So, but he was a loss to the team
because Stuart was really good, he was really knowledgeable.
He knew a lot of the faces in the area and he did some really good work.
But we've now got PC Ellen Warley who's fairly new to the role but has picked up the work well.
Scott Norman also comes into the central ward with Paul Swainston and Liam Trinder has come into North Downs East and West.
And PC Jeff Mehmet who was previously the beat officer there, he's moved across to our Maybird Taskforce.
So again, it benefits from his knowledge as well from the area.
And then we have the ever -present Chris Stevens, Steve Putnam, James Hotliss as well.
So some familiar names and faces there.
Everyone is a dedicated BEAT officer.
And if you go onto the Kent Police Online webpage, on the Singleton Homepage,
you can find details of those BEAT officers, how to contact them.
You'll find some crime stats in there.
You'll also find engagement events and there should be at least three months worth of events.
Normally the BEAT surgeries that the BEAT officers hold, but there will be other events on there as well.
And it will also show what the ward priorities are for the next three months.
So we've recently done them in the last few weeks.
We've set the new priorities for the next three months.
And those are informed by the BEAT officers local knowledge.
They'll be informed by surveys that are sent out on MyCommunityVoice.
They'll be informed by intelligence and what the community tells us as well.
So you'll see some common themes in there and social behaviour, driving, issues with
driving, road safety, drugs, concern around drugs as well are common themes across the
district.
So they'll be our priorities and at the end of those three months, the BEAT officers will
all reply to those priorities and say this is what we have done to tackle those priorities in the last three months.
We're also introducing VOG specific surgeries, so violence against women and girls specific surgeries going forward.
The first one is at the end of this month and they are advertised also on the Kent Police website under a different section under the violence and women's girls section.
the individual one itself.
And there'll be various events that will advertise
going forward on there.
We're looking to expand the work,
a running club, I think Joyce mentioned earlier
about a running club.
That's also something that we're looking at
to pick up on the great work that Ashford District
has done with a running club in Victoria Park,
which has become really popular.
So yeah, those surgeries will be starting
from the end of this month.
Thank you.
So, we look at crime figures, I know here in the CSP we've presented these for the last couple of years, an overview of the two year period of the sort of crimes we focus on, the main crimes.
So, we can see there, and what I will say is that obviously you'll be interested in
your own individual wards and the particular round and social behaviour.
If we could get that, we'd be here all night.
There'd be too many slides and too little.
What I would say is, hopefully, we've got my contact details.
If you want to discuss those in more detail in person, I'm happy to do that outside of
this meeting.
This is just an overview of those.
So you see there in red, I'll talk about those specifically.
Robbery, as I previously discussed,
robbery incorporates some shoplifting as well,
which I think accounts for the majority of the rise.
We don't have a specific robbery issue within the district, thankfully.
And actually the 30 .2 % there equates to 19 offences.
So the percentage, yes, doesn't look great on paper,
but the overall figure of 19 offences probably sounds better.
It would be less, would be ideal,
but that does incorporate the changes to legislation,
which happened over a year or so ago
with the way shopliftings are recorded,
where there was also an assault involved.
So that speaks for some of that.
The sexual offences, again,
that does incorporate a number of different offences.
That's actually a difference of seven offences there across that year.
Shoplifting itself has risen again, 13 .7%.
That is in line with the national picture and
I've said that before, there's 107 in total offences.
We are still very good at solve crime and solving shoplifting's arrests and
charges for shoplifting, but it does remain a persistent issue within our towns and retail
parks within the district, but we are focusing on that, that's what I'll come to shortly.
And in social behaviour, the one we've discussed most, as you can see there, a 38 .4 % rise is
a fairly significant rise, and that equates to around 540 offences over the year. What
I will say about that, if I can,
is that if we break that down into everything
that antisocial behaviour incorporates,
when we talk about figures, it covers a range of offences,
including dog bites, animal nuisance,
fireworks, motor vehicles, unlawful encampments.
So it incorporates various offences,
not just probably what we perhaps think of
as classic antisocial behaviour,
but neighbour disputes as well,
which is another big issue in certain communities.
So there's a number of fences in there.
And again, I'm happy to discuss your individual wards
with you if you want to get outside of this meeting.
Thank you.
And that's just an overview of our solved crime,
which again, I won't go into too much detail.
How much do you have that in the pack sent to you?
And I'm happy again to take any questions on that,
either after this or outside of this meeting
as individuals and individual wards.
Thank you.
So if we just talk about what activity we've undertaken
across the last 12 months.
So we have had a number of retail crime operations
where we've targeted repeat offenders and those businesses that suffer the highest loss.
We have a Safer Business Week coming up next week, where we have a number of days of activity
planned with partner agencies, Tara and Sarah's team as well, to focus on business crime,
again, across the district, not just in folks in the south centre, albeit that is our highest
harm for retail crime, be it retail parks and other town centres as well.
We have had our night -time economy focus again around violence against women and girls, the
safety of the night -time community, engagement with the security staff, licence premises,
taxi drivers and the late night food outlets.
That has included training to taxi drivers and a national campaign, Slam of Breaks, that
took place a few weeks back,
which focused on some training with the bus network as well,
which we engaged with and sent some staff across
to help out with that training.
And then our licenced premises ops that we carry out
through the year, where we attend various locations again,
that would depend on our information and intelligence
with the passive drugs dog.
and we've seen some really good results from that
across the year as well.
Again, not just in the towns,
but we've been out to the rules as well,
lead earlier in the summer,
and some good results out of that.
Thank you.
I keep looking here and realise that I've,
you're changing it, not me.
So drug disruptions, so obviously one of the issues
and one of the priorities for us is the concern
around drugs, drug supply, drug dealing in the districts.
And we again, our labour task force,
had some really cracking results throughout the year,
multiple arrests.
I'm sure you've all seen it in the news,
and if Greg Poacham was here,
he'd be telling you all about it.
But his team had an arrest of two individuals
who had nearly 50 kilogrammes of cocaine on board a lorry.
£3 million worth, I think it was estimated as, and that was some really great work by
them, some really good old -fashioned police work, and using their experience to detect
that crime.
And that's been one of the biggest seizures we've had in the county, I think.
And also the county line's disruptions, well, they've had multiple arrests for the serious
violence, sexual offences, whether that be outstanding suspects or whether that be live
investigations. Incidents have happened within the last three hours, 24 hours. The team are
often deployed on those arrests and are really good at finding those suspects and bringing them
into custody. We spoke already about the road safety operations. We've got another one coming up
in December and again we've had, as Sarah alluded to earlier, multiple vehicles seized, traffic
offences identified. We have seized e -scooters and e -bikes. Again another concern across the
districts, so some good work there. And then Knife Crime Awareness Week, that was earlier in the
year, we have another one next week, and that included educational visits to schools, our focus
on outstanding suspects and those high visibility patrols. So that's just a snapshot of all the work
that the team does across the district for the last 12 months.
And just, Councillor Holgate mentioned about AI earlier.
So in the police, we are investing in AI, and that technology is coming through.
There's a whole team dedicated to it.
And you'll be pleased to know it's not just police officers, because that'd be a disaster.
We have got people who know what they're doing in and building lots of really,
really good and impressive things way above my understanding
to support us, not only in disrupting criminality,
understanding how AI works and how it affects criminality,
but also what we can use to assist us in our daily business
and tackling crime and making it more efficient
and more progressive, I guess, for the word.
So that's all good.
I'm having anything for myself?
No, thank you.
And the next one, please.
And I know we've spoken about it, but my community voice.
Now, some of the wards have got some fairly good uptake and some not so much.
A lot of what I've heard this evening around, you know, information sharing, making us aware
of issues, or just being made aware of issues, I guess, can be done through my community
voice.
And I would ask you, if you're speaking to your communities, your residents, if you could
encourage them all to sign up to this, the beat officers will be doing that.
Like I say, some of the officers are really, really good at messaging and putting things
out.
Steve Jones, Chris Stevens is another one who does it really, really well.
Toby Allen over in Cheriton is embracing it now more.
For those who know Toby, there probably some interesting posts from Toby, but some really
good work from him as well.
So I would encourage that anyone you speak to, anyone who's got concerns, I think someone
mention about social behaviour, labour disputes, people who may be a bit fearful of reporting
it, that is a really great way of reporting it. It will come straight to your beat officer
and you will get a response from it. So, I say, I'm not going to beg, but if you could
ask and share that message, that would be great. And there is more information on the
to sign up.
So that's it for me.
I might add just a little bit in relation to that.
I think Carlo doesn't properly talk about the amazing job
that he does enough.
So my community voice is definitely one of the most
important things for us to be able to understand
what's happening.
The community is listening to the questions earlier
and to Carlo's presentation.
He's mentioned, he was part of one of the questions earlier
about how do we get our information,
he mentioned multiple source,
to be able to put dispersal order in place.
There's so many that I can think of where it's very
proactive and a single piece of information has been enough
for Carlow to direct the teams to actually prevent things
like unauthorised music events from taking place,
actually having people there right at the time.
And that was from a single piece of community intelligence
as well.
And just a bit of reassurance really,
in relation to the shoplifting,
I know Carlow's mentioned the NTF.
They do some absolutely amazing work.
Greg would probably tell you about that stop
that they did, it was fantastic.
But it is real old -fashioned policing.
And they will just get out into the community
and plain clothes often.
I often come in and think they're in on a day off,
but actually they're out doing things.
They're out in unmarked cars in plain clothes.
And this came up as a concern the other day,
where some said, oh, we don't really see
the police in this particular area.
And actually they had done so much work
just in plainclothes. So it was really good to feed that back as well.
And just some reassurance that they are always out and about doing many things for the district.
Thank you. And just to sorry, your speaker. So I think obviously,
antisocial behaviour is one of the biggest issues that we've discussed
across past 12 hours that have been raised this evening. And the dispersal that we put in place
from New Romley was a good example of that.
We also had one in place over the weekend
in the town centre for the, again, youth ASB.
There have been some changes to ASB powers
that have come in to legislation just this last week,
and you'll see that I'm just gonna bring them up
so I remember them correctly.
So there are now respect orders that have come into force,
which are for adults, those who are 18 and over.
There are housing injunctions for persons aged 18 or over,
where there is housing related to social behaviour,
and youth injunctions, which for persons aged under 18.
What I'd say about those, and I've spoken to our
is that respect orders are fairly new.
We haven't had any yet as a county,
and you come in, there's still lots of work going on
around how they will be implemented, how they will work.
The youth injunctions is not something
that probably sounds like a easy win, I guess,
they sound like, but the reality is
they're gonna take a lot of work.
They're not going to be quick things to implement.
They're going to be probably a period of time, a long period of time of watching, working with youths,
working with other agencies, education, to try and get the youths off this pathway before we can seek an injunction.
I think the hope was that the age for CPW and CPNs would be lowered because at the moment it's 16 and over.
A lot of our antisocial behaviour is committed by younger children and we really are in a rock and a hard place in that case.
Yes, we can use education. Where there's criminality, we can deal with that.
Again, it's not the same as dealing with adults with criminality because there's other pathways you can take.
So, yes, there are new powers in place, but they're not going to solve everything instantly.
It's going to be a case of seeing what we can use, what we can't use,
but also continuing with the work that we're already doing with partners, with that educational piece, particularly the youngsters.
And we're quite fortunate that when we do identify those involved in the antisocial
behaviour, we will take them home to their parents.
And we're quite fortunate that a lot of the time the parents are very proactive, very
engaging and want to work with us to prevent that further ongoing issues.
Obviously, there are times when that doesn't happen and we have those repeat offenders,
but we will continue to focus on that.
Again, this is where the Neighbourhood Task Force comes in.
if we identify problems in certain areas,
we can, it's called drag and drop, I think it is, isn't it?
We call it drag and drop them into that area
for a period of time to focus on that problem.
And it is around problem solving.
We know that we're not gonna solve every problem
by arresting everyone, that doesn't work.
We know we need to work with partners, which we do.
And we know that that work is ongoing.
So just a little bit about those changes
and just managing maybe expectations around that.
So thank you.
Questions?
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:51:27
Rich.
Thank you, Jay.
And thank you for answering the question
Cllr Rich Holgate - 1:51:33
on new technologies, I was gonna come back to that,
so I appreciate that, and I'll spare a thought
for your cyber unit over the next, well,
I see 12, 24 months.
The two year period figures weren't adding up for me,
but it might be just because the numbers within it,
but where the increases are robbery plus 30%,
sexual offences 1%, shoplifting 13, and ASV 40%,
but all crime down a percent in total.
It just didn't really add up for me.
Is it just because what you're saying around the numbers
underneath the percentages are lower?
It just didn't add up that it was at face value,
such an increase across the board, yet overall went down.
So I just didn't really understand the mechanism on it.
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:52:21
.
Cllr Rich Holgate - 1:53:03
I'm sorry, I won't get a nose for you on the door.
Is it just that only a few, you've just selected a few crime categories there?
I think that's not...
Is it consolidated?
That's either.
Right, okay.
Again, if I missed a day of the crime that we...
Sure.
Thank you, George.
That's too much.
Yeah, and that's probably, I would consider next time
I'd probably take that out.
Sure, okay.
You're right.
That's helpful context.
Thank you.
And then I suppose just on the robbery and shoplifting,
I'm trying not to make two and two make five,
but would that be indicative of the cost of living challenges
and those types of things come through
at a kind of societal level?
is there a connexion there that you've noticed or is it almost in the interest?
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:53:48
In shoplifting, the trend that's been going on probably since the beginning of the time
Councillor Tony Hills - 1:53:52
and there's a number of factors that have happened in the past.
One of them is organised crime, which is one of the most crime -targets shops.
And they go from county to county, it's not just a national issue.
Since COVID a lot of the stores have reduced staff, reduced security, some stores are willing to accept a certain amount of loss.
But perhaps they are willing to accept that that's the nature of the visa unfortunately.
Some of it can be put down to the team, we go up and they will know the faces, they will know the regular offenders.
They will often think and they will find a penitentiary.
So they are a bit of an increase because of the final cases.
or it could be that we have increased shopping
because I mentioned earlier,
the same thing as having reported 10 days worth of shopping.
We did find that in the gated stores
and we're trying to encourage that reporting.
So there are a number of factors to it,
but that has been ongoing training,
particularly since COVID.
I think that's the best answer.
I think that is a good thing.
Any more questions?
I am here.
Laura.
First.
Cllr Abena Akuffo-Kelly - 1:55:17
Thank you.
Thank you for all the work that you do.
I know you work incredibly hard
throughout the district.
There are two main things I wanted to talk
about.
As we look around,
we don't have any young people here to defend
themselves.
So I'm going to defend them on their behalf.
We've spoken a lot about young people and dispersal orders,
and I don't want us to demonise young people.
There aren't many things for them to do,
apart from hang around doing nothing.
There are not many youth centres left for them to go to.
There aren't many activities for them to do.
So what else can we expect them to do?
So I think it's really important for us to make that point.
And I did wonder if there's any capacity
for preventative work with young people,
other activities that you can do with them
rather than them trying to have parties on the beach
or whatever because there's nothing else to do.
So that was one question.
And then the other question was about the Valk surgery.
I'm really glad and happy to hear
that you're going to be starting that.
I just want to cheque who will be running it.
Are they suitably trained to be culturally responsive,
intersectional and inclusive in their approach?
and compassionate in their approach as well.
I know, of course, you have across the board training
on VOG for all police officers,
but I'm sure you know that people have different
temperaments and some people will be better than others.
So are you making sure that you're very particular
about the people you choose to be involved in that?
And I assume that you'll be liaising with the people
who run the one stop shop.
What's the difference between what the one stop shop
is offering and what you're going to be offering as well?
and what steps are you going to take to safeguard
the people who will be attending on those sessions?
Obviously, you'll be advertising it,
but how are you going to make sure that they're safeguarded
so that if there are other perpetrators
who perhaps want to attend as well,
that there's something in place for that?
Thank you.
Microphone A - 1:57:24
So, in relation to youth and other activities,
that's something we were working together
with the district council on.
Unfortunately for us, our funding,
we didn't have as much funding,
or we didn't have any actually,
as we did last year, which obviously was a bit of an issue.
So yeah, that's definitely something we have spoken about
and something we're working towards.
And we know that works, because we've done it before,
and it has worked very well.
Particularly in the summer months
and going into the winter as well,
now is a difficult time.
And we're certainly not trying to demonise all children,
because it's not the case.
It is a small minority of children who cause issues.
And when certainly you're saying all of them are bad,
some of it is kids being kids,
but sometimes that is taken a bit further.
So yeah, we're certainly working with council on that.
In relation to the full surgeries,
yes, that's something that will be staffed
by members of my team initially,
who have all been trained in, you know,
vogue and domestic abuse and all related issues.
One of them, Chloe is involved in the one stop shop.
So there is some continuity there.
And I guess the difference is it's from a,
obviously Chloe attends them anyway.
It won't just be Chloe,
there'd be officers with her as well doing it and it's really just to
encourage that reporting where now we have the officer surgeries and
there will be things reported at those surgeries but they as you said they
might not be comfortable with those officers as individuals so I think it's
going to be a work in progress.
We need to understand what the need for it is.
There's going to be an uptake in it.
It's advertised on the Kent Police website
under the board section.
And at the moment, like I say, it's a bit of an unknown.
Other districts do them.
A lot of the districts do them.
Some of them do add it onto the beat surgery.
We're doing it as a more specific one
so people have that safe space to come along.
Yes, we'll be aware that there could be perpetrators there.
Have experience of that.
We do deal with issues like that on a regular basis.
So those officers aren't, you know,
they understand what's required of them.
There are so many different parts to it.
You're right, it's not as simple as, you know,
everyone comes in, no one's got the same issues.
there's so much to it.
So if we get to a stage where,
and we've already spoken about it in CSP and other meetings
around having other part agencies there
who are more specialised, then we will do that
because that will be of benefit to all.
So I've probably skirted around that a little bit.
But it is, I say it's new,
and we can see how that goes.
and then if it's success here, we're gonna roll it out.
Our plan is to do it around the district,
not in just one place.
So we can reach further out as well.
A bit like the beach surgeries,
we don't wanna focus just one place.
The first one is in the town centre,
but it's in a safe space,
but we wanna go out to other places.
But we're going to further afield.
That's the plan.
Obviously the venue, the location has to be suitable.
It can't be an open space.
It has to be somewhere where people are gonna feel safe,
people are gonna feel comfortable coming in
to talk about what they want to come and talk about.
So there are a few considerations around it,
but we want to try it first here and then work from there.
I'm happy to keep updated on that.
Yeah, thanks.
I think all the work that you've talked about,
thank you for it.
And I think you've just demonstrated
the importance of human beings.
And I hope the efficiencies that you talked about
in relation to AI don't involve replacing people
doing the work, because I think the kind of challenges
and the nuances, they have to be navigated by people,
don't they?
My question was actually gonna be about taxis,
but it's probably more a question for the council,
which is just that obviously the nights are darker now,
and anecdotally, quite often,
when people are coming off the train,
particularly at folks in Central Station,
and it may be the case at other stations,
there aren't taxis on the rank for people.
And people often are calling them,
but if people haven't or they're visitors to the town
and they don't know about the taxis,
they can be standing there not knowing
how to get to where they need to go.
And it can be people who need help,
you know, vulnerable people as well.
So my question really was just,
was probably around the licencing.
Is there any requirement for the companies that we are licencing to make sure they are providing taxis on the rank later on into the evening?
So that safety element is covered.
Cllr Laura Davison - 2:02:55
I can answer that question. I am the head of regulatory services and I am responsible for the licencing team as part of that role.
In answer to your question, the short answer is no.
There is no legal requirement.
We do work quite closely with the operators.
My licencing officers are primarily field officers.
They do a lot of work with the police, very successfully.
But that is something that we can look at as part of this.
so that we do some, I do encourage very much so
joined up working, and as you've heard,
you know, we join up with the police
and our own CSU team,
so that is something that we can have a look at,
but there isn't actually any statutory requirement
for them to do that.
And we can't, there's no statutory requirement,
but can it be put into licences in that sense,
or is that the same thing?
No, we can't do that, but we are currently revising
our taxi licencing policy, so that is something
that could be, we could encourage that,
but we can't, the way that taxi licences work
is we can't statutally require them to do that,
but we certainly can encourage good practise.
Yeah, that'd be great, thanks.
Yeah, thank you, Chair.
Cllr Paul Thomas - 2:04:34
Yeah, thank you very much for the presentation.
I just want to do a follow on
to what Councillor Davidson's just raised
to do with nighttime economy.
At the Licencing Forum, the security industry staff
raised concerns about taxi marshals.
Again, they saw them as a really key resource
for helping them to get vulnerable people into a safe vehicle and then into their safe space.
So resourcing of that is critical according to the security staff,
because of course they're the people who tend to be at the front end,
because it's their staff who see a lot of vulnerable people coming out of the pubs and clubs.
So that's a question I'll ask Carlo.
And the second one is linked to technology, and that is, are there plans or do you have plans for rolling out facial recognition technology to help you with your policing activities as well?
So, they're the two things I'd like to raise. Thank you.
Microphone A - 2:05:42
Thank you. So in relation to the tax marshals, yes, that's something that we historically
funded along with the CSU. But again, that came down to funding. I know that we're currently
working on a plan to get them in place for the Christmas period. So back in, we know
how important they are, we know they did a really good job. We did want to increase the
number of the hours, but that wasn't possible. So hopefully that's something that we will
have in place or the CSU have in place in the next few weeks.
So that's definitely one.
And we know that the Knights Island Conning and Licencing
Officers, the security team, really appreciate their help.
And they went way above and beyond what they were meant
to do, I think it's fair to say, when they were in place.
So yeah, that's a great point and something that hopefully
will be in place soon.
In relation to the facial recognition,
It is something that Kent Police have access to.
It's not been rolled out as far as I know
as a standard thing.
It is something that we can request
if we have a specific need or a specific issue.
So I think you're probably seeing it in the news
being used in, I think, Medway, I wanna say Medway.
But it is something that we can use
if we have a need to do so.
But it's not something that's going to be rolled out far and wide at the moment, as far as I know.
Just a sort of follow up to that.
One of the things that Steve and James have been pushing is for residents to sign up their CCTV systems
so that if crimes do occur in an area.
So I just wondered, you know, the only time I've seen that raised is either one of Steve's surgeries
or my conversation in the street with him, something of that nature.
So I just wonder whether that could be, you know, a bit more of a push and maybe a campaign
on that to get people to recognise the importance of that.
Because there are so many out there now.
And I know there are rules associated with how the data is gathered.
But it's an absolutely invaluable source, you know, to help the police.
So I just wonder whether it could be that kind of campaign to get people to sign up for it.
It doesn't cost anything, does it?
at the end of the day.
There has been a campaign to do that in,
I can't remember if it was, but it was some time ago
because that register has been in place
quite a while now, hasn't it?
So again, if you go on the company's website,
there is a section on it and there is where you can register
and you're right, it is invaluable.
Whenever we have a crime taking place,
you know, the first thing we look at is
Sissi the Ring doorbell car dashcam.
That's the key to a lot of our lines of inquiry.
So that has been done.
The BEAT officers will promote it.
It is on the Kempley's website.
But perhaps you're right,
perhaps it needs a bit of a re -push
to the wider public. So thank you.
Anita.
Thank you.
And again, thank you for all your hard work.
Thank you in particular for highlighting
when we can see your priorities
on the website. I've just been having a look.
It's really useful and it says you're going to
publish an update. I mean, is this the first time
you've done the priorities? Where do we find that update? So no it's not. So we've been doing these for some time.
The updates will go on to the web page on that exact page in three months and
they'll be there for you to see what the updates are. The BEAT officers should
also be sharing those updates as to what they've been doing on their MCV notices
as well. So they should have, well this is what I've been doing for the last three months,
with your priorities.
Like I say, MCV plays a big part in that
because MCV will automatically send out surveys
to those registered, which is great
if you've got 200 people in your ward registered.
If you've got five and you only get one survey back
and that's about dog fouling,
that may be very important to that one person,
but that doesn't represent that ward.
So again, we have hoped on about MCV.
That's one of the key features of it.
But we don't just take the survey.
It is around what our communities are telling us,
what our information is telling us,
what our intelligence is telling us.
What you as counsellors are telling us are the priorities
because you will be told by your residents,
your communities.
So that's where you'll find the priorities.
That's where you'll find the results in three months.
We have asked for those results to sound
they're a bit longer than they perhaps were
because I think before if you blinked you'd miss them.
and then, and you won't, no, no.
Yeah, so they will stay on there for,
I don't know how long they'll stay on there for,
but it's quite a short period of time.
And again, if there's, that's something you want to do,
I can find you the results and then send them to you,
so please drop me an email
and I'll do that for the last three months.
And you may look at those priorities and go,
hang on a minute, that's not, that's not a priority.
This is what I think a priority was.
And then that's a conversation you can have
with your beat officer.
and that's something we can take into account.
Yeah, no, that's really useful.
I mean, there's some quite sort of open things
on antisocial behaviour, and we've had a lot of us
on the green and high.
I assume that comes into that kind of thing, does it?
I mean, obviously, we don't want to talk about specifics
necessarily here, but yeah, sort of just identified
based on feedback from local residents crime data
and ongoing concerns.
It's just a big kind of umbrella for antisocial behaviour,
I guess.
Yeah, I mean, so it can be more specific, you know, if there's a specific anti -social behaviour.
It's very unusual to have just one individual and social behaviour, which I guess is why we try and maybe put it under that bigger umbrella, because we will focus on the wider picture.
But you're right, some of the ones that are on there, you know, you have road safety, well actually, what does that mean?
Road safety could mean speeding vehicles, it could be that they're parking dangerously, it could be e -scooters or e -bikes.
So we can be more specific, but a lot of the time we're not because it does cover a broad range of offences.
Chris Stevens in Hive is, you know, he's very good at his updates, he's very good at his MCV posts, hopefully you're seeing those.
So you should be getting those if you're signed up to MCV, or perhaps you should be getting them anyway.
I can find the ones from the last three months which changed in November.
But that's why we do the wider, less specific I guess.
That's great. I think anything I'd say it would be good to see the action.
What progress you've been making, just leave it on there so that people can see, oh yeah that's what you've got and that's what we're focusing on now.
But it's great. It's good to see. I wasn't aware you could see all of this and you can see where all the crimes were.
So it could worry people, but at the same time,
it's useful information to us as councillors.
Thank you.
Thank you, Toni.
So two things.
First of all, I mean, it's come up a few times this evening.
It's quite clear, I think, to all of us
how profound the change has been,
the impact from the beat officer team.
When we first got elected in 23,
The general perception on the marsh was that the police didn't exist.
People didn't bother reporting crimes.
It'd be a bit of an open joke around when was the last time you saw a policeman.
And I quite quickly got involved in semantic social behaviour issues.
I was trying to get people to report them.
They wouldn't do because they didn't think anything would come from that.
And fast forward to where we are today, it's just completely different.
The police are very visible on the marsh.
It's so much easier to get people to report crime,
often because they've actually had an opportunity
to speak in Anacortes to James or Steve anyway.
And people are very willing to report it
as long as they know they're being taken seriously.
They know one of the two are gonna pop around
at some point in the next day or two,
or much quicker if it's something very serious and urgent.
and as I say it's quite a profound change which everyone across the community really appreciate.
So thank you for that.
I was curious to know how you view the success of the team and what KPIs you look at.
Because you look at the crime stats and it may well be that you're seeing more reported crime.
It may be people reporting crimes now,
whereas in the past they didn't,
because you've got that increased police presence.
So I'm just curious to see what metrics you look at
to see the performance of the team
and to, yeah, how do you prove internally
and justify that resource and the benefit
that they bring to the force?
I mean, I'm sat next to my boss,
so it's a difficult question to answer.
I think we're quite lucky in the neighbourhood policing team that we are able to have a bit
of a free rein, I guess, as to what they do. Now obviously the big officers have their
wards, you're right, I think the way they are, there are certain individuals who have
really improved the performance on their wards, the reporting has really increased, the activity
they undertake, the neighbourhood task force again are able to, you know, they've got that
ability to focus on the problems,
and those problems can range far and wide.
So I guess it's difficult to put into context
what our performance indicators are.
And again, that may change with management above,
not Marpi, but before.
So the previous senior leadership would have had one idea,
and the current leadership have a different idea.
I think for me, the performance I look at is, you know, are we engaging with our communities?
Are we engaging with our partners?
Are we focusing on, you know, the key issues that are being raised, the priorities, for instance?
Those three months, what have we done in those three months to tackle them?
Now, if we've gone out and arrested, you know, 500 people, that's great.
But has that had an impact on the community?
has that had an impact on crime victims.
That's where, so figures are great, you know,
like I've put those arrest figures in just to say,
well, actually look, the team do really well.
You know, we've had one officer who's arrested,
I think 80 people in under six months, you know,
and he is a bit of a machine.
He would go out day in and day out and arresting,
and that is brilliant.
And he's targeting retail crime, high harm offenders.
That is all impactive,
But that doesn't mean that somebody,
I don't know the names,
but somebody who hasn't had ATIS
isn't doing a really, really good job
because they are out in the community,
the likes of Steve and James are out in the community
doing some really fantastic work,
that engagement, talking to people,
encouraging people to report things,
dealing with incidents.
So the measure across the board
is difficult to put into categories
because they're all doing such different things, but it's all really, really valuable.
For me, I can see it across the board because I sit there and look at various stats, which is great,
but like I said, it doesn't give us the whole picture.
And they're also doing, they're also assisting our response team colleagues answering 999 calls.
Yes, they're doing that, particularly those who are out in rural areas where there's, you know,
stations there but I say Steve and James down in Lid and the marsh particularly if there is a 999
call and the nearest response team are 25 minutes away in Folkestone they will then go to that so
they're not just dealing with their daily job their beat jobs they're dealing with that as well
so there's so many things that we we look at and what they're doing
it's difficult to put them into individual boxes because they're you just can't
I think I'd add to that as well, like echoing everything
Carla said, but from my perspective as well,
I'm looking at things like updates and the priorities.
Are they meaningful?
Have they made a difference to people?
Are they making the community feel safer?
Feedback from the community.
So I do get a lot of feedback, particularly
in relation to a couple of names that
have been mentioned here multiple times tonight,
and others as well.
So actually, I get that feedback so I
know that they're in the community, they're engaging,
they're doing that work.
and whilst data is great, what is the meaning behind that data?
And actually, what does that feel like to be in that community?
You know, we mentioned arrest, but actually there's also the preventative work that goes on by having...
So you kind of, you've got both, yes, the care risks are going up because people are more confident to report crime,
and absolutely that is a real key priority.
But then there's also that other element of the preventative work
that's potentially preventing some of that crime from taking place in the first place.
So it's very difficult to say that it's one thing or another.
I think it is a real collective of different feedback
in some of the data that we get as well.
And again, I'm gonna say my community voice again,
because again, that's how we can understand
how people are feeling.
Are the priorities making a difference?
And do you think people feel safe?
And do they feel that they have what they need
from the office?
Yes, thank you for that.
I guess behind the question, I know over a period of time budgets come and go, don't
they?
And the force will come under pressure from time to time.
And it's just, I guess, are you happy that it's, because it's quite clear to us on the
ground and it makes a huge difference.
But that resource hasn't always been there.
So it's just as, I guess, it'd be nice to know
that you feel that there's a strong enough message there
that you could continue to justify that over time.
And then on the, my second question was
just on sort of my community voice.
So I, which is great.
And certainly I would like to be equipped
to sort of go out there and help you get more people to sign up for it.
I appreciate also that you want people to sign up for it, so you've got them in the system and you've got control over that or whatever.
At the same time, just in terms of getting the message out there, I wonder whether there are some other routes.
I mean, on the Marsh, Steve's emails are sufficiently legendary. They often go viral on the real Marsh watch.
probably just different people randomly kind of post it up there, which is for me a really good thing.
I'm sure Steve isn't going to want to put stuff on forums like that because they're getting undated with lots of stuff coming back the other way.
But is there a mechanical way of getting the posts more consistently put out on some of these kind of forums just to get that important message out there?
Yeah, it's certainly, I mean, I think down there, that's very unique because I know Steve and some others who I speak to say that a lot of his posts appear on the Mask Watch or they appear on social media because people in those groups.
And that's how Steve, I think, gets, he'll claim all the credit himself, but that's how he gets a lot of his numbers ahead of everyone else.
Not everywhere is as fortunate as that because they don't have the uptake.
We, as far as I know, don't have the access to do that ourselves.
We have got a My Community Voice, that's something we've signed up to, and that's the forum we use.
It is email -based at the moment.
I think there is some work ongoing to maybe make that slightly easier in the future
because a lot of people will sign up
and then it's a bit of a riddle and roll
to go through the email stages and sign up
and some people give up.
The key is for our officers to be there with them
and do that there and then, and then it's quite easy.
You know, you get the updates.
We've eliminated a lot of the sort of generic updates,
the fraud alerts that people get,
and they'll get in the data and sign off.
But yeah, it's a very good point
and it's something we'll take back
to our strategic prevention command
and see if there's anything we can do
because we know it works for Steve particularly
because we always hear about it.
Which is great because that's what it should be.
If every community had that sort of community,
and they do, other boards do have community -based
social media, but they just don't share it
as much as they do down there.
Thank you.
Councillor Tony Hills - 2:23:12
Okay, any more questions? No? Good.
I'll just make a quick plug here. Most of the parish councils nowadays, these ones I deal with, have got improved websites.
And I just don't think people use them enough to reach out to some normal circles of communication.
So I would suggest you might want to do a bit of work on the parish council websites, but that's just my view.
I've got one other agenda item after we finish this one,
so don't dash off.
But can we receive a note that can report OS2610?
Yes, yes.
Agree, thank you.
And we received those excellent presentations.
Thank you, Karen.
Yes?
Happy, okay.
Now I've got an extra item,
and a certain person has been sitting over there very patiently,
Councillor Mike Blakemore, he just wants to say a quick word,
Cllr Mike Blakemore - 2:24:09
he's the cabinet member for community and collaboration.
He'll say a quick word, so the floor is yours, Mike.
Yeah, thank you, Chair.
We've been reviewing the work of the Community Safety Partnership,
scrutinising the Community Safety Partnership,
and I just thought it was worth noting this evening
what happened on the 19th of September
with the Burston fire.
We haven't got Kent Fire and Rescue with us
this evening, unfortunately,
but we obviously owe them a debt of gratitude.
There were no fatalities,
no serious injuries during the fire.
But in the hours and the days that followed it,
other members of the community,
other partners and community safety partners
stepped up and supported the guests from the Burston
and the residents from Pavilion Court
who had to be evacuated.
So I think we owe a debt of thanks to all of them
and to the wider community for the response to the fire.
And I just thought it was worth us noting that this evening.
Thank you.
Thank you for that, Mark.
Councillor Tony Hills - 2:25:11
It just shows what community resilience is all about.
We don't know what's coming down the track,
so it's how we handle it.
But okay, yes, Karen?
Oh, happy, oh sorry, it wasn't on my list.
Oh, I'm not upset with me.
Microphone C - 2:25:27
Probation, always the last to be heard.
I think it's a stigma attached to us.
I'll keep it short and sweet.
Just want to tell you about Folkestone Probation Service.
Obviously we manage Folkestone, Hive, Dover, Deal and Sandwich and Elsham.
We did manage Lids, Dimchurch and Murumli, but that was handed over to Ashford, so they come under that area.
We are currently managing about 550 offenders at this moment in time.
The past year, as I am sure you are all aware, has been quite significant for the probation service.
There have been huge reforms in change, mainly to prioritise the overcrowding in prisons.
With that, obviously, there are now more offenders in the community,
which has had an impact on the probation service itself and also local services.
What's along with that, with the impact of that, is that we've also had changes with
sentencing and how we manage those sentences within the community. We're now
looking at people being sentenced, they'll spend a third in prison, a third on
probation, on licence and then a third off supervision within the community. So
So that's going to have another impact on everybody within the community itself.
Along with that, people that have been released as of the 1st of October,
everybody's coming out in a tag.
Whether that be a GPS tag, an alcohol tag, a DAPL tag,
which is for people that committed domestic violence,
everybody will be monitored for up to a year.
One of the things I want to emphasise is that obviously
there are several groups that remain excluded from the early release arrangements,
and that includes sexual offenders, domestic abuse offenders, terrorist offenders, child -related offenders,
and those serving live sentences.
I know that's quite a key concern for everybody, and I just want to reiterate that to you,
that that's not the case, they're not coming out on early release.
Along with the sentencing, we have now got a tiered supervisor model within the probation service.
So depending on what tier you are on, it depends how often we will see you.
So if you are of higher risk, we will see you more regularly, that could be weekly.
It is where you could be lower risk, where we could be seeing you either fortnightly, monthly, bi -monthly or three -monthly.
It just depends on the nature of your offence and the nature of the risk that you pose.
Obviously, our remit is to protect the public, manage risk, and that remains our most important thing at the time.
The other thing is, with these early releases, it's put a lot of pressure on local services.
One of the main services is our housing.
That remains the most difficult thing for all the offenders coming out.
If they are street homeless, trying to find them somewhere to live, it's difficult.
Obviously we work with the local council, we work with local housing agencies, support agencies,
but it's difficult and we spend our time trying to find housing for our clients.
With the local work that we do, we have now retained a housing specialist within the probation
service and they're working really closely with Adam Clark at Foulton High District Council.
They provided an ex -offenders housing officer and that's proved marvellous for the last
couple of years, so thank you for that.
That's really good and obviously we've done a lot of joint work with regards to housing
and our offenders.
Also, to reiterate as well with the CSU,
with our meetings with you guys,
it's incredibly important,
and linking up with Carlos and his team,
we've done some brilliant joined up working
to prevent more crime within the community,
with sharing information, and without that working,
and obviously the work that Tara has done
with bringing us all together,
we wouldn't be able to achieve a lot of the things
that we have been able to achieve.
So, thank you for all of that.
With us, within probation, we have got workforce challenges.
We're working at 75 % capacity at the moment.
Even though there is a huge national
promotion to get more probation officers,
it's very difficult to find probation officers.
It's difficult to retain.
I don't quite know why that is.
However, at this moment in time, in Folkestone,
We are a team of 15, so we have seven trainees at this moment in time.
So our caseloads are quite heavy, but that doesn't stop us from performing the great work we try to do within the community.
So I give us praise on that.
Public protection remains the core priority of probation.
And so regardless of any of the changes of the supervision or the changes in how we deliver our interventions,
because the safety of the public is still key and prominent in our work.
All I would like to say at the end, I will keep it short and sweet,
is thank you to the CSU.
Probation is very visible now, and I think without you guys,
we weren't about before, and I think the last couple of years we have been.
So, good work. Thank you.
That's all I've got to say.
It's a good relationship.
Yeah, it is a good relationship.
With all the different agencies, that helps us with the mental health team, domestic violence,
the schools, etc.
We have all come together and that is key to maintaining our offenders in the community
to stop them from trying to break that cycle of crime and inspire and motivate them to
move on to more positive lives.
I think working together that does happen.
So, yeah, no, it's good, positive working.
Thank you for that. It was worth waiting for.
And if any questions for Kath? Laura?
Yeah, not so much a question, but just to thank you really for the work.
And, you know, operating with 25 % down on staffing
is obviously a really challenging situation.
So, thank you for the work that you're doing.
And I just wanted to give a shout out to the report in the pack as well
Cllr Laura Davison - 2:32:10
from the fire colleagues who aren't with us,
which is particularly about water safety.
And again, the preventative work around water safety,
which is an unfunded work that colleagues there are doing,
I think it's important for us to recognise that.
And just, did I see in the beginning that health colleagues
are a part of the partnership as well?
It's obviously a shame that we don't have anybody here
from that perspective.
and I wonder whether we can follow up and ask for
at least a report from those colleagues on the work
that's been going on.
Because I think that is such a core part
of the collective work that's going on, isn't it?
Build strengthening those relationships.
I know I think it's something that's been ongoing work
for some time, but I think we would back up the work
that you're doing on that and say it would be really important
to have that contribution.
Councillor Tony Hills - 2:33:01
Good point.
Any more questions?
Karen.
Ms Karen Weller - 2:33:05
Sorry, just wanted to come back from that.
We have historically had a very difficult opportunity
to get health involved.
And it's not because they don't want to,
it's because there are so many doing different types
of work in different places.
They're never at the same time able
to actually join in our meetings.
And by the time you've got used to one person
that moves on to somebody else,
it's not something that we've let go of.
We are still trying to get that support,
but there's no one person that that job sits with
and it's incredibly difficult,
but we'll still keep going with it.
Thank you.
Paul.
Councillor Tony Hills - 2:33:45
Thank you very much.
Yeah, thank you, Kath.
Cllr Paul Thomas - 2:33:49
I just want to say a thank you to Kath
because we touched base last year about community service.
And again, I just want to put a shout out
to the excellent work they did on our Scout HQ in New Romney
and they're going to be doing work
for New Romney Town Council next year as well.
And again, I think for me, interfacing with the team who came there, not just your officers,
you know, the offenders who were in community service,
I mean they really appreciated the opportunity of doing something for the young people.
And they appreciated the comments that came back from the youngsters as well to say thank you
for all the work that you've done because, you know, it saved us hundreds and hundreds
of pounds, it really did, so just a big shout out for community service really.
Thank you.
Microphone C - 2:34:37
Thank you for that. If you have got any scout huts or any buildings or gardens that you need sorting, please get in touch with me.
We can provide a team for you.
Councillor Tony Hills - 2:34:46
Hot on the heels there.
Cllr Alan Martin - 2:34:49
I wasn't particularly aware of that.
If you could share some information, because I genuinely have a number of jobs,
Not personally, but me doing.
But no, there's a few...
So some of the parish councils which have hardly any money,
I mean there's playgrounds that need tidying up, there's work,
and that could be quite a game changer if that's a viable outlet.
That would be fantastic, yeah.
I'll give you my email and you can get in contact with me.
Well, all of you, yeah.
Microphone C - 2:35:29
Just going to say on top of that I've already spoken with Kath about actually trying to
Ms Karen Weller - 2:35:33
support some of our armed forces huts within the district and actually looking at going
out there and actually getting some of them painted and sorting the gardens out.
So lots of things like that that we've had conversations on that that's something that
we press forward for this year coming.
Thank you.