Issue - meetings

To receive an update of the Community Safety Manger prior to a formal report being submitted to the Committee on 3 March 2011.

At the Committee meeting held on 6 January 2010, it was agreed that as the economic landscape had changed since the review of the Community Warden Service commenced, the Community Safety Manager would bring a report to the Committee containing:

• A revised job specification – after speaking to StreetScene, Enforcement Officers etc to highlight any gaps in need.
• A deployment proposal outlining how many Community Safety Wardens would be required and where they would be placed/used.
• How performance would be measured.
• How Community Safety Wardens would be managed.

The Community Safety Manager attended the meeting to update Members on progress made. He reported that following the announcement in budget cuts, it had been agreed to reduce to number of Wardens to 8 at a saving of £130,000. It was proposed to split the Wardens into two teams, north and south and that any team leader issues were still being considered.

With regard to the role of the Wardens, he was currently investigating the duties and expectations of partners as well as the statutory and non statutory responsibilities. The possibility of joining the service with the Civil Enforcement Officers was also being investigated.

It was reported that performance was measured through call logging, over the past 8 months the following incidents had been logged:

• 137 reports of abandoned vehicles, 48 of which were not taxed and 20 were subsequently taken away.
• 134 anti social behaviour reports.
• 500 stray dogs reports, 287 of which were collected and 230 rehomed.

The Wardens had also issues 40 fixed penalty notices and 8 cases had been taken to court

Future work included the adoption of powers from the DVLA to deal with untaxed vehicles and the possible merge with the Civic Enforcement Officers.

Following consideration of the update Members were supportive of the visible presence that the Wardens offered and made the following comments and observations:

• That a more radical approach was required, including the possibility of joining up all departmental Cheshire East Wardens. However, in the past, there appeared to be a resistance to this proposal.
• That the Wardens should be task orientated.
• That in order to prove the value of the service, performance needed to be measured, and the service reviewed again in 6 months time.
• That there appeared to be very few fixed penalty notices issued, which should be addressed as a matter of priority, as prosecution would prove the value of the service.
• That a breakdown of hotspots be brought to the next meeting of the Committee.
• That there should be one unified service with a core set of skills and one management system.
• That there appeared to be inconsistencies in the financial figures given to Members and that this should be addressed by the next meeting.

RESOLVED

1. That the Community Safety Manager be thanked for the update.
2. That the comments highlighted above be taken into consideration when drafting the full report.
3. That the full report be brought back to the next meeting of the Committee.