Agenda and minutes

The North Area Committee Lead Officer assumed the Chair and invited nominations for the Chair.

 

Councillor Bird was proposed by Councillor Todd-Jones, and seconded by Councillor Sarris. 

 

On a show of hands, Councillor Bird was elected unanimously.  She assumed the Chair.

 

The Chair invited nominations for the Vice Chair.

 

Councillor Todd-Jones was proposed by Councillor Sargeant and seconded by Councillor Gawthrope. 

 

On a show of hands, Councillor Todd-Jones was elected unanimously.

 

 

Apologies were received from Councillors O’Reilly, Price and Manning.

 

The Chair welcomed the new city councillor for Arbury elected in May, Councillor Patrick Sheil and County Councillors Scutt and Meschini.

 

No declarations of interest were made.

 

The minutes of the meeting held on 2 March were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

 

ACTION	LEAD OFFICER/ MEMBER AND TIMESCALE	PROGRESS
14/26/NAC - Tree roots opposite Co-op Green End Road causing trip hazard	Councillor Manning	Update:  Additional tree has been added to the list for remedial work but the item is still on-going.   Further update: given the cost and the fact that there is now an EIP in that area, and a project I have got added to the Northern Area Corridor Transport Plan pot, it will be done as part of one of these.  Officers have confirmed this won't affect either project (in terms of adding extra cost or stopping elements from being done).   Update 5 Dec 14 Cllr Manning : Initial site visit completed and this matter will be included in a wider feasibility study of the area.   Update 15 Dec 2014 Cllr Manning:  Work has been delayed but the issue is still ongoing.   Update 20 Jan 2015 Cllr Manning: Feasibility study still being written.   Update 9th April Cllr Manning A residents meeting had been held and a decision on future action is expected to be considered post-election.   Update 14th August Cllr Manning Waiting for designs to be completed by SKANSA.    Update 20th January Cllr Manning This matter is being address with other issues in the area. The action to be retained for further update   Update 31 March Cllr Manning This matter was progressing along with the rest of the City Deal consultations.   Update 9 June Cllr Manning City Deal meeting earlier today discussed this issue   Update 15 December  2016 Cllr Manning City Deal scheme may go forward in January 2017. Maybe resolved by March? Retain on action sheet for the present.
14/65/NAC   Parking restriction in De Freville area and impact around Milton Rd Library	Cllr Scutt	18 December 2014, Cllr Scutt Regarding Parking Restrictions steps have been taken to place double yellow on the corners of all the inter sections Milton Road. County Council are appointing an Officer to look at parking in Cambridge and the problems that residents experience to determine safe parking.   Would investigate the possibility of four hour parking restrictions in this area as requested by Mr Sergeant at the December meeting.     3 Feb 2015 Update Cllr Scutt From County Officers: With regards to Milton Road Library parking, whilst it would not be permissible to restrict a parking space solely for library use, the County can restrict the duration of stay to say one hour to prevent long term parking and introduce some turn-over of vehicles utilising the parking bay. This would involve an amendment to the traffic regulation order (TRO) and the installation of additional signage, so there would be a cost associated with this work which would need to be borne by a third party - that is residents or need to secure funding from alternative sources. Update 9th April Councillor Scutt Has discussed this with County Council Officers and options under are consideration including Pay and Display bays,   Update 10th September Councillor Scutt County transport officers advised that it would not be possible to have dedicated parking bays for the library. Restricting parking to two hours in the area would require a Traffic Regulation Order and would include a wider area.   Update 19th November Councillor Scutt Double yellow line work due to for early next year.   Update 31st March Councillor Scutt Cllr Scutt stated that this issue was still on going, the Cambridge Joint Area committee was working on the issue of parking generally and she wanted a solution for the whole of Cambridge.   Double yellow lines are in the queue, two new officers have been appointed and expect work will be done in due course.   Update 15 December  2016 Cllr Scutt Joint Area Committee is currently looking at parking in residential areas and will review in its January 2017 meeting. Maybe considered by Highways meeting in March? Retain on action sheet for the present.
15/4/NAC Q2 To investigate with property services: area around Tesco’s continues to be untidy. There is a large, uncovered, wire cage style litter bin, and rubbish gets blown about.	Councillor Price	Property Services are in the process of renewing the lease to Tesco and as part of this they will be leased an additional area at the rear of the shops where their cages are and will be erecting a simple store with flat roof (subject to landlord’s approval of the design and planning approval). Their cages will be installed in the area and this should be tidier and eliminate blown rubbish. The rear access road is just for Tesco and the takeaway for deliveries but not, longer term parking. The tenants are responsible to ensure the access is not blocked and control rubbish etc. We will pick up these issues with them.   16 June 2015   Retrospective planning application on-going.   Update 10th September Councillor Price Councillor Price stated that work to improve was underway. He would push to have the double yellow lines in the area reinstated.   Update 31 March Councillor Price The area had been re-surfaced recently and was waiting to hear when lines would be re-instated.  There had been no complaints about rubbish and wanted to retain until the lines had been re-instated.   Update 15 December  2016 Cllr Price Retain on action sheet until the lines had been re-instated.
15/17/NAC Sharing ‘Open Data’ to assist with the setting of Area Committee Police Priorities	Councillor Manning and Councillor Todd-Jones	Councillor Manning has agreed to take this forward and will be arranging a follow up meeting.   Update Sept This will be discussed at the next meeting when the Police are present.   Update 15 December  2016 Cllr Manning No action to date. Retain on action sheet for the present.
16/04/NAC Q5 Chesterton Recreation Ground toilets often locked: why?	Councillor Manning undertook to raise with Councillor Johnson	Update 15 December  2016 Cllr Manning Gent’s toilets are generally open, but the ladies are not. Cllr Manning to investigate on behalf of Mr Bond / Chesterton Eagles Football Club. Retain on action sheet for the present.
16/19/NAC Meadows Community Centre	Jackie Hanson to have dialogue with Histon and Impington Parish Council with regards to Meadows Community Centre.	Update 9 June Cllr Todd-Jones undertook to investigate further.   Update 15 December  2016 Cllr Todd-Jones Undertook to investigate further as no information available to date. Retain on action sheet for the present.
16/43/NAC Q1 Milton Road pavement and road surface in need of repair.	Ward Cllrs (City and County) to action together	Update 15 December  2016 Cllr Scutt City and County Councillors are working together with Milton Road Local Liaison Forum to address issues. There is funding available from the City Deal to make improvements. Retain on action sheet for the present.
16/43/NAC Q5 Pavements to Arbury Road in poor state of repair. Raise as priority.	Cllr Scutt and Cllr Onasanya	Contact cycle team about this matter   Update 15 December  2016 Cllr Scutt County Officers looked at Arbury Road pavement; it is not in a state where the County Council can justify making repairs due to budget restrictions. Cllr Scutt to look at alternative funding sources to undertake work. Retain on action sheet for the present.
16/49/NAC Open Forum   Councillor Todd-Jones to liaise with Ambulance Service to ensure Emergency Services have a comprehensive list of defibulators stored in community buildings across the city.	Cllr Todd-Jones	Committee Manager note: Cllr Gillespie is following this up for West Area
16/49/NAC Open Forum   Ward Councillors to liaise with Mr Bond regarding replacement of damaged middle bollard on St Andrew’s Rec cycle path
16/49/NAC Open Forum   Cllr Todd-Jones to pass on concerns from Mr Davidson (regarding damage to his garden by City Council Officers) to the Chief Executive and Senior Officers.	Cllr Todd-Jones
16/49/NAC Open Forum   Cllr Scutt to check lighting levels in the Hawks/Campkin Road area in response to residents’ concerns (raised by Mrs Harris)	Cllr Scutt
16/49/NAC Open Forum   Cllr Todd-Jones to follow up with John Parrott about lack of light concerns in the Borrowdale bus shelter (raised by Ms Rundblad).	Cllr Todd-Jones	Update 2 March 2017 Cllr Manning There has been some liaison between city and county contacts. It has been confirmed this is a City Council responsibility, officers will follow this up. As will Cllr Manning
16/49/NAC Open Forum   Cllr Todd-Jones to follow up with Planning Officers if City Deal should be consulted in planning applications (raised by Mr Taylor).	Cllr Todd-Jones
16/49/NAC Open Forum   Cllr Todd-Jones to follow up with Andrew Preston regarding Fen Road work progress query raised by Mr Taylor.   Cllr Manning to attend Local Highways Improvement Panel in January 2017 and will pass on Mr Taylor’s comments eg lack of publically available information.	Cllr Todd-Jones             Cllr Manning
16/50/NAC Police and Safer Neighbourhoods   Sgt Misik to clarify reasons for increase in cycle thefts in West Chesterton.	Lynda Kilkelly	Update 22/12/16: Sgt Misik has emailed Cllr Sargeant: Had a look through the crime figure for the last 6 months to look for a pattern in the cycle thefts.  There are two main areas which have had above average levels of theft of bike and these were Manhattan drive and the various Uni Boat houses.  These two locations account for around 15% of the theft of cycles for the ward.   Neither of these two locations are that surprising as there is increased number of cycles in the area.
16/50/NAC Police and Safer Neighbourhoods   Anti-social behavior team to follow up with Police regarding installation of mobile speed camera in Ashfield Road.	Lynda Kilkelly   Louise Walbank	Update Louise Walbank Discussion with Sgt Misik had been undertaken. The installation of a mobile speed camera was not felt appropriate at this time.
16/50/NAC Police and Safer Neighbourhoods   Cllr Todd-Jones to follow up with Police Mr Taylor’s request for breakdown of assault figures in police area committee report as they committed to do for West Area.	Cllr Todd-Jones   Lynda Kilkelly	Sgt Misik suggested at WCAC that the new format would be rolled out to all area committees.   Update 22/12/16: Sgt Misik has spoken with the Chief Inspector around the breakdown of the assault data that was discussed at the area committee and as I expected he said the it is intention to review the data provided to all the committees and he hopes to be able to split the assault data into assaults with injury and those without.
16/50/NAC Police and Safer Neighbourhoods   Cllr O’Reilly to liaise with Police on a more user-friendly method of reporting online hate crime.	Cllr O’Reilly   Lynda Kilkelly	Update Louise Walbank The Community Cohesion officer is in contact with the Police Hate Crime Tactical Group and attends a monthly meeting with Dean Wiffin from Police HQ. He will raise the issue at the next meeting and update the Area Committee on any further improvements. Online Hate Crime can be reported directly at a police station or on online through the True Vision website. The website is used nationally and is dedicated to reporting all types of hate crime. The site has gone through improvements and is much more customer friendly that when first launched. Once an online report is made, the nearest constabulary will be notified of the complaint and a local police person will follow up the report.
16/50/NAC Police and Safer Neighbourhoods   Cllr Todd-Jones to follow up with Police and residents’ regarding drug dealing in the Bermuda Flats area.	Cllr Todd-Jones   Lynda Kilkelly	Update Louise Walbank The issue has been discussed with Sgt Misik who offered to undertake either a letter drop in the area or lead a talk to residents. In the interim the police intended to do some plain clothes work in the area so it was decided to leave them to complete this before any further action was started.
16/52/NAC Environmental Report   Wendy Young to liaise with owner of recycling shelf in Aylestone Road regarding appropriate signage to advertise the ‘recycling’ shelf.	Wendy Young	Update 21 June 2017 Wendy Young: Officers had been undertaking work in this area to monitor the situation, plans were in place for the upcoming period to look at what suitable signage was available and make arrangements to follow up with the owner of the recycling area (update provided in Environmental Report for December 2016 to February 2017).
16/52/NAC Environmental Report   Wendy Young to provide details of follow up action taken after multiple needles dumped in Kings Hedges.	Wendy Young	Update 21 June 2017 Wendy Young: In response to the last report, when 38 needles were removed from Kings Hedges, officers were asked to provide an update on what happened when large volumes of needles were found. In the particular case reported, 38 needles were removed from a garden at Campkin Road by a city ranger, which was as part of the proactive work of the ranger and was not a response from residents’ enquiries. All data on needles removed by the Streets and Open Spaces Operations teams was reported to the County Council Drug and Alcohol Awareness team. The Drug and Alcohol Awareness team work closely with service users for encouraging appropriate disposal. They also work with doctor surgeries and pharmacies for ensuring adequate provision for disposal are available. In addition to this they also look at trends in data and hotspots to see if it was caused by certain users and if they could put provisions in place for needle disposal shoots (like public toilets). (update provided in Environmental Report for December 2016 to February 2017).
16/52/NAC Environmental Report   Enforcement patrols to tackle fly tipping to be undertaken in Maitland Avenue/ Mortlock Road area as per P39 of the Officer’s report.	Wendy Young	Update 21 June 2017 Wendy Young Area added to the enforcement officers patrol areas for East Chesterton. Full update to be provided in Environmental Report due at North area on 14th September 2017.
16/52/NAC Environmental Report   Wendy Young to show Cllr Manning copy of Officer advice for bin locations on Millennium bridge.	Wendy Young	Sent to Cllr Manning 22 Dec 2016   Update 21 June 2017 Wendy Young Liaison between County and City continues. Suitable bin design had been sourced and requires specialist fittings for bridge railings. Work ongoing, expected to be installed over summer months.

 

Members of the public asked a number of questions, as set out below.

 

1.      Lillian Rundblad raised the following issues:

     i.        In the Cambridge Residents’ Parking Scheme, Extension Delivery Plan, for Zone 12, only the southern area of Histon Road was included. It was, therefore, likely that the northern area would experience displaced commuter parking when the plan comes into force. She requested whether a Local Highways Initiative (LHI) bid be proposed regarding double yellow lines on Carisbrooke Road, running along the edge of Mayfield School towards Warwick Road? A positive response in support of this idea had been received from the Head at Mayfield School.

    ii.        Queried why there was no public transport link from the Histon Road area to the new Cambridge North Station. Would it be possible for the Guided Bus to stop at Akeman Street bus stop?

 

Councillor Todd-Jones said that in relation to the anticipated parking displacement issues, he would like to liaise with Mayfield School and the Highways Officer to initiate discussion about a project based around safety outside the school and where double yellow lines may be required. If an LHI bid was required it could be submitted with the next round of bids later in the year.

 

Councillor Scutt highlighted the difficulty created by boundary changes which had made it unclear whether her query should be raised in this area committee or West Area Committee. The McManus estate is in the city Castle zone but the Arbury county zone and County is responsible for highways related issues. A discussion needed to be had with the Executive City Councillor on how issues are dealt with when they cross boundaries. Councillor Scutt would be prepared to sit on West Area Committee if this helped the situation.

 

Councillor Smart suggested that perhaps the yellow lines could be paid for and incorporated within the package of measures under the Cambridge Residents Parking Scheme.

 

Lillian Rundblad responded by confirming that Zone 12 did not cover the relevant parking area and therefore could not be incorporated in the City Deal money.

 

Action Point: Councillor Todd-Jones to liaise with Mayfield School and Highways Officers about the potential for implementing double yellow lines.

 

Action Point: Democratic Services Manager to clarify implications of boundary changes on the Area Committee decision process.  

 

2.      Kay raised the following issue:

     i.        Road repairs had been undertaken on one half of French’s Road, when would the other half be completed?

 

Councillor Scutt confirmed that she was on the County Council Highways Committee. There was still funding available so enquires would be made.

 

Councillor Todd-Jones confirmed that the yellow lines and the areas in most need of repair on French’s Road had already been addressed.

 

ACTION POINT: Councillor Scutt to report back regarding whether the second half of French’s Road would be repaired.

 

3.       Barbara Taylor raised the following issue:

     i.        Expressed concern over the illegal parking on Milton Road verges.

 

Councillor Smart had made enquiries but unfortunately this was not a police issue unless the vehicles were physically blocking pavements. County parking services had not yet responded; residents should get in touch with them to issue parking tickets when required.

 

Councillor Sargeant suggested that reinforcing the double yellow lines would be the most appropriate way of tackling the issue. City Deal needed to be involved in order to do this.

 

Councillor Bird confirmed that the police could issue warning tickets onto vehicles which warn of future potential fines.

 

Councillor Scutt confirmed that if parking inspectors were informed of the times that the vehicles were usually illegally parked they could attempt to visit at these specific times. She encouraged residents to report incidents.

 

Councillor Meschini confirmed that a number of LHI Bids to ban parking in certain areas of King Hedges had been successful so exploring this could also be an option.

 

ACTION POINT: Councillor Meschini to look into the possibility of applying for a LHI Bid to ban parking on Milton Road.

 

4.       Richard Spencer raised the following point:

     i.        An outstanding issue with Cambridge North Station regarding a breach of planning permission concerning the destruction of trees and habitat behind Long Reach Road.

 

Councillor Sarris confirmed that he had been working with Councillor Manning to apply pressure on both City and South Cambridgeshire District Council Planning Officers to take action. He affirmed that in order for good relations to be maintained with the rail company they must respect their previous assurances.

 

5.       Cab Davidson raise the following points:

     i.        Had the shared waste service undertaken a risk assessment to see what impact the bin smell in hot weather had on the public?

   ii.        The City Deal had messed up the replanting along Arbury Road. Were they planning to rectify this?

 

Councillor Scutt highlighted that the Arbury Road replanting issue had been raised by other residents. She undertook to speak to City Deal about it further.

 

Councillor Sarris confirmed that he would take up the bin issue with Executive Councillor Rosy Moore and report back.

 

ACTION POINT: Councillor Scutt to raise the concern about the replanting of the hedge and border on Arbury Road with City Deal. 

 

 

ACTION POINT: Councillor Sarris to liaise with Executive Councillor Rosy Moore to establish whether a risk assessment had been undertaken on the public health impact of waste disposal in hot weather.

 

 

 

Alan Neville: Greater Anglia

 

 

The Committee received a presentation from Alan Neville (Customer Engagement Manager, Abellio Greater Anglia) which provided an update on Cambridge North Station after its first month of opening.

 

·        The design and layout of the station was contemporary with a community feel.

·        Cycle facilities were in high demand.

·        They have had a high media interest and focussed heavily on promoting the new facility. Public feedback about the site and services on offer had largely been positive.

·        Demand for the station was increasing weekly.

·        The official opening had been delayed because of the pre-election period but plans were in place to hold an official opening in the near future.

 

 

The Customer Engagement Manager said the following in response to Members’ and public questions:

     i.        Greater Anglia had not given input on the amount of female public toilets that had been built. He recognised that the current allocation of two for the whole station was not enough, so confirmed that comments would be fed back.

    ii.        The lifts being out of order had been treated as a very serious issue. Engineers had been called to repair them as soon as the problem occurred and everything had been done to accommodate those impacted. Action was being taken at Director level to ensure the problems did not occur again.

   iii.        There had been a few problems with the ticket machines due to the model of machine being used. Efforts were being undertaken to address this.

  iv.        Confirmed that Greater Anglia were in discussion with local bus companies to discuss potential collaboration and onward travel plans. He advised that if the Councillors and public had any specific questions or would like to recommend bus stops on key routes then they should email him; he would raise them at the next travel plan meeting.

   v.        Directors from Greater Anglia were liaising with their cycle guttering provider to fix the issues that had arisen. One of the key problems was that the channel appeared to have been placed too near the wall. A time span for repair could not be provided yet.

  vi.        Selective door opening from the train doors was thought to be a problem with specific train companies who are working on the issue.

 vii.        Confirmed that although it might seem unnecessary for trains to stop a long way down the platform it was for complex operational reasons; the signalling and birthing was based there. As this caused an inconvenience to customers it would be looked into. 

viii.        The lack of adequate signage from Fen Road had been raised prior to the meeting so action would be taken to provide more.

  ix.        A fixed date for the opening of the coffee shop could not be confirmed. However, work had begun on building it.

   x.        The train timetable would undergo changes based upon service progress in the future; this was likely to improve links.

  xi.        They recognised that access for blind or visually impaired people was not satisfactory. An officer from Cam Site had visited the station to assess the design. The issues had also been raised with the head of safety from Abellio Greater Anglia which they would look to address.

 xii.        Confirmed that he could not comment on the amount of time the gates were shut on the level crossing on Fen Road because Network Rail were responsible for this.

 

Paul Mumford, South Cambs District Council

The Committee received an update from the Team Leader, New Communities at South Cambridgeshire District Council regarding the wider developments in the North Area.

 

The presentation outlined

·        The proposed plans from Brookgate for the development around Cambridge North Station and pre-applications which had been received for locations in the North of the city.

·        The proposed new development of 6500 new houses in Waterbeach.

·        Large scale building proposals needed to be considered before changes to the transport infrastructure could be made. The A10 study was also currently underway; the outcome which would guide future application processes.

 

The Team Leader, New Communities said the following in response to Members’ and public questions:

     i.        The same developer from Cambridge Station was now undertaking the work at Cambridge North Station; he assured that the problems which had occurred at the former site would not be repeated. Lots of research had been undertaken and all the applications were undergoing a strict design process.

    ii.        Cycle routes from the new Waterbeach development to Cambridge were a top priority. Relocating the train station at Waterbeach was also an option that they may consider.

   iii.        In order to ensure that developers did not deviate from their agreed plans they would be subject to more intense scrutiny through Planning Committees. This would ensure that decision making was accountable and the position was clearer to developers.

 

 

The Committee received an update from Sargent Misik regarding policing and safer neighbourhoods trends.

 

The report outlined actions taken since the last reporting period. The current emerging issues/neighbourhood trends for each ward were also highlighted (see report for full details). Recommendations for future priorities were suggested and asked to priorities.

 

Louise Walbank, Anti-Social Behaviour Officer added an update for the City Council’s perspective.

 

The Committee and members of the public asked the following question regarding the report:

 

Q1. Councillor Bird asked if there had been an increase in reports of child sex exploitation. If this was the case were figures or statistics available?

 

A.  Confirmed that child sex exploitation was certainly occurring but it would be wrong to release specific figures. Work with the Make Safe Team was ongoing.

 

Q.2 Councillor Bird asked if they would be able to have feedback on the CCTV which had been placed on Fen Road.

 

A.  The Anti-Social Behaviour Officer confirmed that her team were now responsible for the administration of CCTV. In order to provide feedback information and supporting evidence was required.

 

Q3. Councillor Sarris raised the issue of communication between the public and police. He had received a number of reports where crime and complaints had been reported to the police but no response had been received. He too had reported a problem via email and had not received a response. This issue was undermining the public faith in policing.

 

A.  Confirmed that the police website had advertised the incorrect email address and assured that this would be corrected as soon as possible. There were alternative ways via the police website to make contact with the North Area Team.

 

Q4. Doug White raised a concern about increased instances of vehicles racing along Kings Hedges Road in the early house of the morning.

 

A.    The most appropriate way to report this issue would be to call 101. If specific information detailing times and locations could be provided an application could be made to investigate and attend during these periods. 

 

Q5. Councillor Sargeant queried why the six police priorities had been created for them rather than the Committee feeding back the local priorities reported to them by the residents?

 

A.  The police only attend area committees on a biannual basis so six months would be too long to wait to outline issues. The six priorities had been collated by the local North Area Team; they were not city wide issues. The police held regular area team meetings to outline neighbour priorities; Councillors were invited to attend these if they wished 

 

Q6. Councillor Austin asked if it would be possible to receive feedback on the enquiries the police receive for North Area?

 

A.  Confirmed that it would be difficult to quantify the data just for North Area because of the volume being received and the way it is submitted.

 

Q7. Councillor Austin confirmed that bike theft across the city was increasingly difficult to report because victims were asked for information that they could not provide such as the time and locality of CCTV to the incident. Could some information be provided so that Councillors can advise residents when reporting such crimes?

 

A.  Bike theft needed to be reported by calling 101. Questions regarding the time, location and locality to CCTV were not unreasonable; it allowed police to locate any CCTV images much quicker. Resources had to be prioritised; watching hours of CCTV was not proportionate to the magnitude of the crime.

 

Q8. Councillor Austin asked whether the child sexual exploitation priority had included internet exploitation?

 

A.   Confirmed that online grooming played a part but that it was harder for the neighbourhood team to police online crime.

 

Q9. Councillor Todd-Jones asked if it was possible for Councillors to voice the view of residents and put forward some priorities for future consideration?

 

A.   Affirmed that the voice of councillors and residents was valued, the police encouraged them to contribute.

 

Q10. Councillor Scutt asked what work would be undertaken for road safety if that particular priority was chosen?

 

A.  Selecting the issue as a priority allowed officers to allocate more time and resource to it, focusing efforts and monitoring progress. Increasing patrols and intelligence. He reassured that work would still be undertaken on the priorities that were not chosen, they had still been identified as issues for North area so they would not be neglected.

 

Q11. Councillor Scutt queried the report by the Cambridge News that an estimated 7000 offences had not been recorded by the police?

 

A.  There had been an increase in crime because the way that all crimes were now recorded had changed. The new system involved recording even the most minor incidents which previously would not have required any paperwork, as such the statistic had seen an increase. As a general principle they aimed to record above 97% of reported crime.

 

Q12. Councillor Meschini had recently attended a Cambridgeshire Police and Crime Panel where residents from the Orchard Park area were reporting high levels of cyber bullying and cybercrime as a local issue.

 

A.  Trends had changed over the years and there had definitely been an increase in online crime. However the focus of the neighbourhood community team had to be on the ground rather than on online offences.

 

A member of the public thanked the police for their continued efforts to tackle the antisocial driving on Kings Hedges Road; residents would be pleased to hear that action would be taken.

 

Councillor Gawthrope suggested that roaming CCTV cameras should be placed in key locations where the perpetrating vehicles of antisocial driving regularly congregate such as the Business Park and on Kings Hedges Road.

 

Richard Taylor referred to an earlier statement by Sargent Misik and queried why it should take hours for police to look through CCTV footage when basic mechanisms of binary searching could speed up the process. Bike theft was an ongoing problem so this could be an efficient solution.

 

Richard Taylor raised an issue regarding communication with specific reference to the suspected package left on Kings Parade on 5 June 2017. Police had told the Cambridge News that they were not going to comment until the following day. Mr Taylor emphasised the importance of the role that the media played in informing and communicating with residents and that waiting for 24 hours was unacceptable.

 

Richard Taylor queried why there were not any statistics available on traffic offences given that two of the priorities put forward were traffic related.

 

Councillor Bird highlighted the increase in speeding and road accidents within East Chesterton.

 

 

 

There were 6 recommendations of which the Committee was asked to nominate their top 3 for focus over the coming months.

 

1     Combating ‘county lines’ drug dealing. This work would be a combination of partnership working to safeguard vulnerable people and enforcement work against offenders.

2     Child sexual exploitation. The work undertaken in relation to this priority would be above and beyond the work carried out in relation to this issue. It would involve patrols of hotspot areas and other areas of vulnerability such as school gates to gather intelligence and deal with offenders.

3     Anti-social behaviour around Fen Road. This work would consist of increased patrolling of the area in question by members of the partnership team and supported by wider policing resources.

4     Theft from motor vehicles. This work would involve increased patrolling of areas suffering from theft from motor vehicles.

5     Road safety. This work would invovle high visibility policing to prevent and detect offences and continuing to promote SpeedWatch.

6     Anti-social behaviour in green spaces. This work would consist of targeted patrols of the various green spaces across the area.

 

The Committee voted on each priority individually:

 

1.   Combating ‘county lines’ drug dealing (by 3 votes to 0).

2.   Child sexual exploitation (by 9 votes to 0).

3.   Anti-social behaviour around Fen Road (by 8 votes to 0).

4.   Theft from motor vehicles (by 5 votes to 0).

5.   Road safety (by 10 votes to 0).

6.   Anti-social behaviour in green spaces (by 10 votes to 0).

 

 

Councillor Todd-Jones proposed a change to recommendation 5:

·        Road safety with specific reference to Arbury Road, Gilbert Road, Fen Road and Kings Hedges Road.

 

The amendment was agreed with no one opposed

 

 

The following priorities were agreed:

 

            i. Child sexual exploitation.

          ii. Anti-social behaviour around Fen Road.

         iii. Road safety with specific reference to Arbury Road, Gilbert Road, Fen Road and Kings Hedges Road.