Agenda item

The Committee received a report of the Corporate Director of Neighbourhoods and Climate Change which provided the most recent anti-social behaviour (ASB) data available at both a national and local level.  The report provided information on progress made in relation to the key projects and actions undertaken by the council and its partners to address and reduce ASB, including actions set out within the ASB delivery plan (‘the plan’) 2024/2025 and linked to the ASB Strategy 2022-25 (for copy see file of minutes).

J Waller, Head of Community Protection gave a detailed presentation on the progress made on Anti-Social behaviour. The new strategy which had been developed for County Durham had been refreshed last year with new priority outcomes agreed by the Safe Durham Partnership Board.   The focus of the delivery plan for 2024/2025 was around three key areas of Partnership, People and Places with three categories of ASB of Environment, Nuisance and Personal.  National statistics showed that the number of incidents reported since 2021 had reduced but that this may indicate underreporting in Durham.  There had been an increase in personal incidents which may account for incidents over the summer of 2024.  A further report to evaluate the impact of ABS on victims would be brought to a future Board meeting and could be an agenda item for a future committee meeting. 

Councillor P Atkinson thanked the Head of Community Protection for her presentation.  He was concerned that victims of ASB were reluctant to report crime for fear of reprisal. He asked if this attitude had changed.

The Head of Community Protection responded that in Durham it appeared victims of ASB against a person were reporting crime more readily and that this would account for the increase in incident data.  Over time it was hoped that there would be a growing confidence in reporting but there was still work to do to narrow the gap between the incidence of ASB and the number of reports which were received.

Councillor R Crute thanked the Head of Community Protection for her presentation.  He believed there were issues with collecting data and queried if there was a system that could cut through the quantity to get quality data.

The Head of Community Protection replied that a system called Orcuma/First was used to log relevant data.  The were issues with data cleansing however as it was extracted from difference sources from different agencies.  This could often lead to duplication in reporting.  There were also challenges around how incidents were recorded by various agencies and more recently there had been changes to crime reporting within the police reporting system.

Councillor J Miller stated that he was having issues with the process of replacing CCTV cameras in Wheatly Hill attached to lamp posts due to documents having to be signed by the Parish Council over liability of damage. 

The Head of Community Protection agreed to chase up the CCTV issue and get back to Councillor J Miller.

Resolved:

That the progress being made by the council and its partners in addressing and reducing ASB be noted.