There were no apologies for absence.

The minutes of the meeting held on Thursday, 21 January 2021 were signed by the Chair.

Cllr Leslie Pearton declared an interest as his daughter worked for Kent Police as a Warden in Rochester.

The Committee were provided with the draft Community Safety Strategy 2021-24 that had been prepared by the Council’s Community Safety Unit (CSU) on behalf of the newly established Gravesham Community Safety Partnership (CSP). The Strategy provided the foundation for the direction of multi-agency community safety activity in the Borough over the next three years.

The Strategic Manager (Community Safety Unit) guided Members through the detailed report and highlighted key points from the Community Safety Strategy.

Members noted that the following had been identified as the five key priorities for the Strategy; a detailed rationale for each priority was listed in the report:

• Violent crime including domestic abuse
• Persistent anti-social behaviour and environmental crime
• Preventing offending and reducing re-offending
• Protecting vulnerable people and strengthening communities
• Communication and engagement

The Strategic Manager (Community Safety Unit) advised Members that as it was no longer a joint Strategy and Gravesham’s partner representatives had total control, the fifth priority ‘Communication and Engagement’ was able to be added in. The Council felt strongly about the priority as it would improve communication between Gravesham’s partners and the public, improve communicating the effect on the Borough that the Partnership’ work has  achieved so far, further report Gravesham’s accomplishments and provide increased methods of listening to what the public wanted.

The Strategic Manager (Community Safety Unit) was waiting to hear final feedback from the other partners to see what they wanted included in the Strategy and following that the Community Safety web pages would be updated as they had expired since the end of the previous partnership.

The findings of the public consultation are also summarised in the Strategy and would be included in the new Community Safety web pages.

Following questions and comments from Members, the Strategic Manager (Community Safety Unit) explained that:

• The Council had information readily available on the website informing the public where/how to report crime and ASB; if it was low level anti-social behaviour or a historical crime then the public are  encouraged to report it to 101. However, if it was a serious crime or an incident occurring presently with an immediate  risk of harm then the public are  encouraged to call 999. If a member of the public is concerned about reprisals, then they could contact Crime Stoppers and report the crime completely anonymously
• At Gravesham Council events, there was usually a CSU stall and the safety shop usually runs for a week in December where information is provided to the public on how to report various different types of crimes and crime prevention advice is offered
• The CSU team were very conscious of the fact that a  percentage of domestic abuse victims were men, and it was recognised that there was likely a lot of underreporting of domestic abuse especially from men due to the stigma around it. Much of the work being undertaken by the CSU team was around encouraging domestic abuse victims to come froward and seek help; the point was stressed to Members that the CSU did not  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

The Chair advised that Cllr Sangha and Cllr Aslam had requested the item to be brought to the Committee; the Chair had agreed that Cllr Sangha would be invited to address the Committee following the Acting CSU Inspector, Kent Police.

The Acting CSU Inspector, Kent Police addressed the Committee and gave a detailed presentation on nuisance caused by E-Scooters, what the Police were doing to combat the issue and several cases where a successful prosecution had been made. Some of the key points made to Members were:

• E-Scooters were classified as vehicles and in order to drive them on the road, the user needed a driver’s licence, MOT, and insurance; if they did not have those things, they were only permitted to drive them on private land. No insurers would insure a scooter and there were currently only a few areas in London and Canterbury where E-Scooters schemes were being trialled by the local authorities
• There were a variety of different users; there were the youths that were riding them dangerously but there were also commuters who used them to be greener and some found them convenient instead of using a car to get to work or the train station. There was a lack of public awareness that E-Scooters were illegal to use on the road and that is why officers initial approach was to inform users when they were stopped the first time with a talk and a leaflet.
• Kent Police had an officer in place that was dedicated to deal with the problem of E-Scooters, and they had been working on a detailed plan to tackle the issue; that detailed plan would be shared with the CSU team once it was completed
• A database had been created which was in its infant stages but could be accessed by all North Kent Police Officers; every time an E-Scooter driver was stopped their details would be inputted into the system and given their first warnings. If they were stopped a second time, then they would receive a section 59 warning and a third stop would mean that their E-Scooter was seized under Section 59. The officers could also summon the drivers to court for having no insurance; the leaflet that was being used had been forwarded to the CSU team and would be included in the next edition of the ‘Your Borough’ magazine
• Youths on the E-Scooters were difficult to catch; they had no recognisable plates and would often mount the kerb or drive down alleys to escape officers. The E-Scooters could reach speeds of 20-30 mph and officers were not able to pursue them in a tactical pursuit using Police vehicles as it would be too dangerous
• It was likely that one day more schemes would be rolled out to other areas trialling the E-Scooters with proper checks as it was greener and would remove a number of vehicles off the road but currently the Police were treating it as the illegal issue it was

The Acting CSU Inspector,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

The Committee were presented with the minutes of the Kent and Medway Police and Crime Panel meeting held on 08 December 2020.

The Committee discussed and noted the minutes.