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St Albans Community Safety Partnership Plan 2010/11

Introduction:

This Partnership Plan outlines the key priorities for the Community Safety Partnership for 2010/11 it is based on an assessment of crime, anti social behaviour and drug and alcohol misuse in the district.

The Community Safety Plan for 2010-11 aims to build a safer St Albans through addressing these four aims;

• Preventing and reducing crime, in particular dwelling burglary, theft of and from motor vehicle, theft from person, theft from shop, robbery and drug dealing.
• Preventing and reducing anti social behaviour
• Protecting vulnerable people
• Managing offenders
• Promoting the work of the partnership and increasing public confidence.

Underpinning all of the above is the Partnership’s ability to respond to emerging issues quickly.

Members of the Community Safety Partnership are;

St Albans City and District Hertfordshire County Council
Hertfordshire Constabulary Hertfordshire Fire and Rescue Service
Hertfordshire Police Authority Primary Care Trust
Hertfordshire Probation Service Hertfordshire Youth Offending Team.

In addition the Partnership will occasionally work with other agencies such as British Transport Police, First Capital Connect, Central Herts Magistrates Bench, Crown Prosecution Service, Trading Standards and Housing Associations.

The Community Safety Plan needs to contribute to local and county strategies to have maximum effect. For this reason it not only contributes to but also reflects the priorities of the Local Strategic Partnership’s Sustainable Community Strategy, the wider Hertfordshire Community Strategy, the Police Authority Plan and all of the plans of the Partnership member agencies. Full details of these plans are available on request from the Community Safety Team 01727 819305 or at www.stalbanscsp.org.uk.

Preventing and reducing crime.

The Partnership will concentrate on reducing the crimes highlighted above by continuing with initiatives and activity aimed at deterring and detecting criminals such as Operation Guardian, Operation Sentinel and Operation Crystal. The Partnership will continue to focus on targeting a small majority of offenders who carry out a large proportion of all crime. It will also continue to target resources at providing information on how to reduce the chances of becoming a victim of crime.

Preventing and reducing anti social behaviour (ASB)

St Albans City and District has some of the lowest levels of anti- social behaviour in the County and the Country. The Partnership realises that where this behaviour does occur it is very distressing for the victims. Actions to prevent ASB escalating include education, mediation and family based support and projects such as Onside football schemes and outreach projects such as the Fire Services LIFE Project. However where necessary, the Partnership will not hesitate to use enforcement measures and apply for Court Orders, injunctions and Anti Social Behaviour Orders.

A number of measures have been undertaken in previous years by the Partnership to tackle alcohol related anti social behaviour. As a result incidents of this nature are quite low in the district; however there are some pockets that require further attention and action. The Partnership will continue to target these locations to do more to reduce and prevent further incidents.

Protecting vulnerable people

The Partnership strives to protect the most vulnerable people in its communities. As part of this it will undertake activity to help a wide range of vulnerable people including victims of domestic violence, the elderly and communities at risk of becoming targeted by radical or extremist activity. The Partnership will continue to monitor any hate crimes and incidents taking swift action.

Managing Offenders

Drug misusers often turn to committing crimes acquisitive crime like shoplifting, and theft to fund their drug habit. The Partnership will continue to focus on Prolific and Other Priority Offenders (PPO’s); they have been indentified as the small minority of offenders that carry out the large proportion of crime. The Partnership will ensure that the PPO’s in the district are managed in line with the Hertfordshire PPO Strategy, including continuing to work with the County C2 project. The project targets the most persistent offenders by offering training and work to break the cycle of offending.

The Partnership will continue to educate people about drugs and alcohol in line with national campaigns and the Hertfordshire Drugs Strategy. It will continue to engage the local media and undertake work in schools and colleges. It will continue to work to share information and eliminate the supply of drugs as well as ensuring that information about help and treatment services is available to those who need it.

Promoting the work of the partnership and increasing feelings of public confidence

Hertfordshire is one of the safest counties in England and St Albans is one of the safest districts in the County. The Partnership will continue to promote public awareness of the range of activities which are being carried out to tackle crime, anti social behaviour and drug and alcohol misuse. It will engage with the public by publishing its quarterly newsletter in the local newspaper, keeping its website up to date and undertaking regular press releases about success stories and how to get involved.

The Partnership will give local communities the opportunity to indentify projects where offenders can pay back their debt to society by improving the environment through visible Community Payback Projects.

The Partnership’s Performance in 2009/10

For the period April 2008 – March 2009 crime fell by 6% or 570 fewer crimes compared with the previous year. The table below shows the performance of the Partnership against key crime types from April – Dec 09 and compares it with the same period the previous year showing that all crime is down 8.8%.

[Table not reproduced on this website]

Planning ahead

The Partnership is keen that any projects undertaken are sustainable and produce long term effects wherever possible. In addition Equality Impact Assessments will be conducted on all implemented projects which will consider all six strands of the Equalities agenda.

Statement from District Council on archaeological dig at Verulamium

Richard Shwe, Head of Culture and Community Development at St Albans City and District Council, said: “As part of the new development at Westminster Lodge, the Council has undertaken a geophysical survey of the proposed development site. Twelve trenches, including two pairs which were joined and L-shaped, have been excavated. Approximately five of the evaluation trenches produced stratified archaeological deposits.

The main features found in the trenches include a Roman building, possibly a mill, which appears to have been partially demolished in the Roman or medieval period for building materials. It may be associated with part of a building found in a previous dig on Holywell Hill in 1968 which was further excavated in 2007.

In addition, a ditch has been found close by which could be the leat to a mill. The preliminary dating of these features is 2nd to the 3rd century AD. Evidence suggests that the building may have had painted walls and a solid concrete floor.

These two features lie in an area that will be soft landscaped and will be preserved in situ. They will not be affected by the development. The trenches in which they were found have been backfilled for reasons of health and safety.

The building is of local significance but can not be defined as of national significance or of great visual interest as it is not intact. Further, the finds do not constitute treasure as defined under the Treasure Act.*

Other finds included prehistoric flints, possibly dating from the Late Mesolithic to Early Neolithic periods, circa 4,000BC.
Pits and layers of archaeological deposits from the Roman period or later have also been discovered and additional work will be carried out to investigate these further.

NOTE: Information on what constitutes treasure under the Treasure Act 1996 is set out at on the website of the Portable Antiquities Scheme at http://www.finds.org.uk/treasure/treasure_summary.php.
A definition of treasure is given at pages 5-18 of The Treasure Act 1996 Code of Practice, issued by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Licensing Compliance Officers to help reduce crime and disorder

Two Licensing Compliance Officers have been appointed to check that licensed premises are complying with the terms of their licences as part of a move to help reduce crime and disorder in St Albans City and District.

The two officers will also check that hackney carriage and private hire vehicles are operating within the terms of their licences.

The posts are being funded for a six-month trial period by St Albans City and District Council and Hertfordshire Constabulary, as part of the St Albans Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership.

The Licensing Compliance Officers will work mainly on Friday and Saturday evenings between 9pm and 4am supporting the police with their operations, providing guidance to licensees and licensed taxi drivers and operating as a point of contact for residents who may be concerned about pubs contravening the terms of their licences.

Their focus will be on reducing crime and disorder in hot spots identified via monthly assessments conducted by the Partnership.

Residents, licensed taxi drivers and licensees can contact the Licensing Compliance Officers about any issues they may have on a special hotline number (07770701720) that is available during their working hours at the weekend.

Councillor Anthony Rowlands, Portfolio Holder for Community Engagement and Support, said: “The high visibility presence of the Licensing Compliance Officers will help ensure that the licensing legislation is complied with and assist the police in controlling anti-social behaviour that affects local residents, businesses and visitors.

“Residents often complain that there is no one to call with their concerns about licensing activity out of office hours. Now they can alert these officers straight away by calling a special hotline number.”

St Albans Chief Inspector, Richard Hann, said: “St Albans and the surrounding District are already some of the safest places to go for a night out. We hope that the Partnership approach will help reduce the number of underage sales of alcohol and make licensees more responsible about serving people who have had too much to drink. Both of these things tend to increase anti-social behaviour. We hope that these appointments will help our already good relationship with licensees and make people enjoy an even better, trouble free, night out in St Albans.”

New Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre in running for £500k grant

A £500,000 bid to Sport England to help fund the new Westminster Lodge development has progressed to the next stage.

St Albans City and District Council has been invited to submit further information in support of its application to the Government’s Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Programme for grant funding to provide improved swimming facilities and equipment in the new Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre.

The Council has been asked to provide a more detailed plan to Sport England to secure the £500,000 grant which will be used to provide facilities to encourage more residents to get active and take up swimming.

Its bid is one of only 45 nationally that have successfully progressed to stage two, out of 173 applications initially made to Sport England.

Councillor Sheila Burton, Portfolio Holder for Healthy Living at St Albans City and District Council, said: “It’s good news that we have advanced to stage two. The new Westminster Lodge pool has been planned to optimise its use as a community pool that will encourage more and more people into swimming and activity.”

The Council has been able to bid for a slice of the £10m available nationwide because it has been successfully participating in the Government’s free swimming initiatives for under 16s and the over 60s. The Free Swimming Capital Modernisation Scheme promotes creative approaches to improving swimming facilities to encourage more people in these two target groups to take part in physical activity.

The new Westminster Lodge Leisure Centre development will include a regional competition sized 25m pool, a 17m learner pool, a fitness suite with 200 stations (including a cycle spinning studio), two exercise studios, a climbing wall, a four court sports hall, a crèche and soft play area and a dedicated youth facility. It will also offer a full-scale Spa experience and a standalone Café/Bistro.

A planning application for the new leisure centre is due to be submitted to the Council by the end of January 2010 and the new leisure centre is on course to open by the end of 2012.

Refuse and green waste collections getting back to normal

St Albans City and District Council has worked hard to catch up on refuse and green waste collections following heavy snowfalls in the early part of January.

The waste collection service was put under severe pressure when treacherous weather conditions over a prolonged period left roads and pavements too icy to navigate safely by heavy waste collection vehicles and waste collection crews.

The conditions were so bad that the Council was forced to temporarily suspend the service for three working days until it was resumed on 11 January 2010. In the last week the waste collection team has been working hard to catch up and from this week (beginning Monday 18th January) the Council will once again be operating according to the normal waste collection schedule. Residents can find out which day their collection should take place at: http://www.recyclingforapremier.com/collection-calendar.

Andrew Robertson, Head of Environmental and Regulatory Services at the Council, said: “We are grateful to residents for their patience. There are a few roads and individual properties where catch-up collections are continuing to be made, and we are dealing with these on an individual basis. The team is now working to our usual collection timetable and we expect the whole District to be back to normal by Monday 25th January, assuming there is no further heavy snow fall.

“We have suspended our ‘no-excess’ waste policy for the next two weeks and will be collecting all refuse, including any excess sacks, until 1st February.”

Cllr Geoff Churchard, Portfolio Holder for Environmental and Sustainability at St Albans City and District Council, said: “The waste collection team with the help of extra crews has worked extremely hard by revisiting previously inaccessible roads and collecting excess waste in order to catch up with the collection schedule. Residents were kept informed on their progress through daily updates on the Council’s website. I am pleased to say that they are now back on track and operating to a normal schedule.

“This is the second time in recent months that the team has had to contend with the aftermath of a heavy snowfall. It also made a special effort to ensure that the service got back on track following snow prior to Christmas last year.

“I am pleased their hard work has been recognised by a number of residents who have contacted the Council to thank staff and show their support.

“The Council’s Refuse Working Party will be looking to see if more flexible working arrangements could be introduced during poor weather conditions in future and a report will be going to Cabinet in March”

Council pulls out all the stops to get waste and recycling collections back on track

St Albans City and District Council’s waste and recycling teams are out in force following disruption to the service during last week’s icy weather. Waste collection services have been put under severe pressure in recent weeks due to the treacherous weather conditions.

Andrew Robertson, Head of Environmental and Regulatory Services at St Albans City and District Council said his team made a sterling effort after the first major snowfall before Christmas to catch up with the time table.

“Our efforts paid off and we were able to get on top of things across most of the District. However, this last snowfall was so bad that we, along with many other local authorities in the south east, were forced to suspend our waste collection service at the end of last week as the roads and pavements were too icy for our heavy waste collection vehicles to navigate safely.”

The Council resumed collections yesterday (11 January 2010).

“We are accessing roads on a case by case basis, depending on whether or not it is safe to do so. The main roads are largely clear, but many of the side roads are still presenting problems. We are dealing with collection vehicles weighing more than 20 tonnes gross. You can imagine the damage these could do if they skid on icy roads. We also have a responsibility to ensure our waste collection workforce is safe. Pulling heavy bins along ice-laden pavements can be extremely hazardous. I would ask residents to bear with us during this time and understand that we are working hard to make all the outstanding collections as soon as possible. We are pulling out all the stops and putting on extra crews where we can.

“The crews will be picking up any excess waste as they go. The Council is asking residents to leave their containers, bins and sacks at their usual collection point and we will get to them as soon as possible”.

Daily updates can be found on the Council’s website at www.stalbans.gov.uk.

Snow: update from district council

Services are slowly coming back on, the following summarises the position at the moment

Refuse and Recycling
All the crews are currently out. They are accessing roads on a road by road basis depending on safety. Missed roads will be published on the website. Excess waste left with bins is being collected for the time being.

Highways
Main roads passable. Side roads snow covered and slippery. Salt stocks for treating priority footpaths and other pedestrian areas have been replenished and priority footpath treatment has commenced. Herts. Highways have yet to replenish the salt bins in the St Albans area.

Burials
Business as normal

Leisure, Sports Centres and Museums
Business as normal except external facilities such as the golf course.

Herts. Community Meals
Meals are being delivered as normal with the assistance of our contractors, John O’Conner.

Customer Services Call Centre and Help Desk
Call centre business as normal

Housing Support
Emergency repairs and housing support are available in all areas.

Offices
Business as normal

Planned opening times
The offices are planned to be open during normal hours.

Staffing.
Sufficient for normal operations.

Businesses can now apply online for a licence or permit to trade

As part of the implementation of the European Services Directive on 28 December 2009, St Albans City and District Council has updated its processes so that businesses are able to apply for licences and permits to operate electronically.

Market traders, cafes and animal boarding houses are among the businesses that are now able to apply online for a licence, permit or approval to operate in St Albans City and District.

Residents organising charitable collections in the District can also apply electronically for a licence to collect money, either house to house or on the street.

The Directive is aimed at breaking down barriers to trade and specifies that businesses in the European Union must be able to apply electronically for any licences they might need to operate in their own country or other countries within the EU.

At present the Directive in the UK only applies to the following procedures:

Animal boarding establishment licence
Caravan & Camping site licence
Club premises certificates and associated applications
Cooling tower notification
Charitable Collections – House to House & Street Collections
Environmental permitting
Food premises registration
Food premises approval
Licenses for houses in multiple occupation
Market Stall application
Pet Shop licence
Premises licences and associated applications
Riding establishment licence
Safety certificates for sports grounds
Sex shop & cinema licence
Tattooists piercing & electrolysis
Temporary Events Notices

The Directive does not apply to planning applications (or other applications relating to planning matters), building regulations applications or hackney carriage/private hire applications.

Licensing authorities across the European Economic Area, which includes EU member states and Norway, Lichtenstein and Iceland, are responsible for making the relevant application forms available online.

Cllr Anthony Rowlands, Portfolio Holder for Community Engagement and Support at St Albans City and District Council, said: “Businesses applying for licences and permits to operate in St Albans City and District can now find all the relevant forms they need to complete online. This process should make it easier for businesses to trade by easing the administrative barriers that they sometimes face.”

Businesses and residents interested in applying for a licence or permit can do so online through Business Link at http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/home?domain=www.businesslink.gov.uk&target=http://www.businesslink.gov.uk

Snow: update from district council

· There is likely to be further snow today but we do not yet have an idea of exactly how much
· There is no refuse and recycling service today, but public asked to put their bins out on time and leave out so that we can get to them easily
· Salt for footpaths is low/ non existent, also grit bin stocks low and not able to be replenished at present, we are waiting deliveries, but know that the Government implementing national mutual aid scheme for salt which will affect deliveries
· The market has been left erected to save having to take it down and put back up again for Saturday in dangerous conditions
· There are limited leisure facility times, most will be open except golf course
· Meals on wheels will be working, three volunteers with 4x4s ready to assist as well as John O’Connor
· The contact centre will be open from 10am with a limited service
· We will try and keep going as long as possible today but are also conscious of very slippery conditions

Snow: update from district council

There is 5 to 10 cm of snow across the District with more forecast. There is some disruption to public transport and road travel. It looks as though many schools will be shut. All of which means that we will expect to offer a limited service this morning.

We will be opening phone lines pretty much as normal as a priority, but the face to face reception will not be able to open till 10am. It is likely that we will be operating with a skeleton staff, at best, at the end of the day.

At present the refuse and recycling service has yet to go out. An assessment will be made at around 9am’ but it is unlikely that we will be able to collect today. The request to residents will again be to out out their refuse and recycling on the appointed day and leave it until collected.

We are doing some footpath gritting in the centre of St Albans, Harpenden and the villages, but stocks are very limited.

Other individual services are likely to be limited, with assistance being given to the meals on wheels service, which also has distributed extra meal packs. As usual help has also been offered to HCC. The Market is up and running, its extent will depend on the traders and customers. We know of no other major service issues at present.