Issue - meetings

This report sets out the progress of the Safer Arun Partnership (SAP) during the period April 2020 to March 2021 in delivering the strategic priorities as contained in its Partnership Plan.  It provides information to enable Members to understand performance during the year allowing scrutiny of the partnership and provides a summary assessment of the future challenges and opportunities for SAP.

Upon the invitation of the Chair, the Community Safety Officer presented his report. He outlined the purpose of the report as the statutory annual scrutiny of the Safer Arun Partnership as Arun’s Local Community Safety Partnership. He confirmed that the Committee in leading on this statutory function would legislatively be the Local Authority’s Crime and Disorder Committee for the purposes of this report. In particular, he drew Members’ attention to the Safer Arun Partnership Plan 2020-21 [Appendix C in the Agenda Pack] and its strategic priorities which formed the basis of the work undertaken to try to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour across the District.

The Chair re-welcomed Sussex Police’s Chief Inspector Jon Carter, District Commander for Chichester and Arun, to the meeting. The Chief Inspector highlighted four findings from the report – the significant rise in anti-social behaviour over the period the report looked at in part due to the Pandemic and the restrictions imposed, the significant proportion violent crime continued to play in crime reported in the District, domestic abuse still accounting for a worrying percentage of all reported crime at about 22% and its impacts particularly to children and young people and links to homicide, and drugs harm and successes in tackling and disrupting county lines activity though this tactic did not account for all drug supply in the area.

The Chair expressed her thanks to the whole Safer Arun Partnership team and stressed that tackling domestic abuse was also the responsibility of Members through their community involvement. Councillor Mrs Cooper as Chair of the Safer Arun Partnership also offered her thanks to the team for the work involved in producing the report and to the wider membership of the partnership for their continued engagement.

Members then took part in a full debate on the item where a number of points were raised including:

·         whether more education was needed to tackle some of the underlying issues, particularly around domestic abuse and drugs

·         positive trends in the report, reference made to drugs trafficking and supply in the Strategic Intelligence Assessment 2021 Key Findings [Appendix B in the Agenda Pack]

The recommendations were then proposed and seconded.

The Committee

RESOLVED – to

1.    Endorse the work of the Safer Arun Partnership and the importance of partnership working in contributing to reducing anti-social behaviour and addressing crime and disorder in Arun.

2.    Recognise the work of the Safer Arun Partnership in contributing to the delivery of the Council’s strategic priority “supporting you if you need help”.