Minutes:
The Chairman informed Members that the next meeting of the Committee on the 9th September would commence at 7.30pm instead of the usual time of 7.00pm. This was because the Committee would be visiting Bromley’s CCTV centre before the meeting commenced.
The Chairman stated that the Safer Neighbourhood Board (SNB) had their first meeting on 15th May 2014. The SNB had replaced the Bromley Community Engagement Forum; Councillor Tim Stevens was Chairman, and Mr Terry Belcher had been appointed Vice Chairman. It was noted that the next meeting of the SNB was scheduled for 9th July at Citygate Church, and that the Crime Summit was scheduled for 27th September 2014. It was also mentioned that the Safer Bromley Partnership had met on 13th June 2014. The next meeting of the Safer Bromley Partnership was scheduled for 18th September at 10.00am. The Chairman asked Councillor Tim Stevens to provide more information on the SNB. The Portfolio Holder updated the Committee as follows: The Safer Neighbourhood Boards (SNB) had a wide remit and currently eighteen members had been appointed. Some places had not yet been allocated for purposes of flexibility, and there were some organisations that were seeking floating membership. Affinity Sutton were one of these—the idea being that they would attend a local meeting when it was relevant. It had been agreed that two members of the SNB would stand down each year so that new members could be brought in when required. The SNB had been allocated £29,500.00 in funding, and £5,000.00 of this was to fund an administrator. The current administrator was Councillor Kate Lymer. The Board was free to spend the money as it saw fit. The SNB did not currently have a constitution, but did have Terms of Reference which had been agreed by Sarah Denton from MOPAC. The former BCEF (Bromley Community Engagement Forum) had now been dissolved and incorporated into the SNB. A meeting was going to be held to sign off the BCEF accounts. It appeared that BCEF had an underspend of £5,500.00 and this would be transferred into the SNB bank account after the BCEF accounts had been ratified. There would be three sessions at the Crime Summit, and Bromley Youth Council (BYC) would play a key part. The Crime Summit would be funded by the SNB. The Safer Bromley Partnership was being scaled down and becoming more strategic in function. The Chairman of the SBP was the Borough Police Commander, and the Vice Chairman was Mr Nigel Davies (LBB Executive Director of Environmental and Community Services). Safer Neighbourhood Panels were going to be reviewed by the Borough Commander.
The Portfolio Holder highlighted that he wished to encourage scrutiny of himself, and inspirited the Committee to question him, and to bring issues to him so that he could respond. The Committee agreed to do this. In response to this encouragement, Councillor Doulgas Auld asked the Portfolio Holder if there was any news regarding the commissioning of Public Protection and Safety Portfolio Funds. The Portfolio Holder responded that that there had been some developments, but they had been slow and had encountered various obstacles. The Portfolio Holder commented that if there were any significant updates in this regard, they would be brought to the attention of the Committee in November, and that ultimately, the fate of the Portfolio would lie with the PDS Committee. Councillor Douglas Auld noted that there were ongoing developments concerning commissioning that the Committee had not been informed of.
RESOLVED
(1) that the Chairman’s Update be noted
(2) that the Committee be updated in November with respect to any developments regarding commissioning of the portfolio