Agenda and draft minutes

Minutes of the meeting of the Cramlington, Bedlington & Seaton Valley Local Area Committee held on 23 August as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chair.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Cramlington, Bedlington & Seaton Valley Local Area Committee held on Wednesday, 23 August 2023 as circulated, be confirmed as a true record and be signed by the Chair.

Unless already entered in the Council’s Register of Members’ interests, members are required?where a matter arises at a meeting;?

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1. Which?directly relates to?Disclosable Pecuniary Interest (‘DPI’) as set out in Appendix B, Table 1 of the Code of Conduct, to disclose the interest, not participate in any discussion or vote and not to remain in room. Where members have a DPI or if the matter concerns an executive function and is being considered by a Cabinet Member with a DPI they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with the matter.

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2. Which?directly relates to?the financial interest or well being of a Other Registrable Interest as set out in Appendix B, Table 2 of the Code of Conduct to disclose the interest and only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak at the meeting but otherwise must not take part in any discussion? or vote on the matter and must not remain the room.

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3. Which?directly relates to?their financial interest or well-being? (and is not? DPI) or the financial well being of a relative or close associate, to declare the interest and members may only speak on the matter if members of the public are also allowed to speak. Otherwise, the member must not take part in discussion or vote on the matter and must leave the room.

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4. Which?affects?the financial well-being of the member, a relative or close associate or a body included under the Other Registrable Interests column in Table 2, to disclose the interest and apply the test set out at paragraph 9 of Appendix B before deciding whether they may remain in the meeting.

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5. Where Members have or a Cabinet Member has an Other Registerable Interest or Non Registerable Interest in a matter being considered in exercise of their executive function, they must notify the Monitoring Officer and arrange for somebody else to deal with it.?

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NB Any member needing clarification must contact?monitoringofficer@northumberland.gov.uk. ?Members are referred to the Code of Conduct which contains the matters above in full.?Please refer to the guidance on disclosures at the rear of this agenda letter.

Councillors Daley, Dunbar, Ezhilchelvan, Lee and Swinburn declared an interest in agenda item 8 as they were members of Cramlington Town Council.

The Chair informed members of a change in the order of the agenda.

Police Inspectors for the local area to attend to explain current levels of antisocial behaviour for the Cramlington, Bedlington and Seaton Valley areas, and work ongoing with respect to this.

A presentation was shared on anti-social behaviour in the Cramlington area.  Inspector Jonathan Caisley provided the following information:

418 incidents of ASB had been reported in Cramlington in the past 12 months, equating to 8 reports per week.

Motorcycle ASB had resulted in 265 calls to the Police in the past 12 months, equating to 5 reports per week.

The main issue in Cramlington were people under the age of 18, causing ASB between 5 pm and 10 pm.

Areas in ASB had changed from Brockwell to Manor Walks particularly Sainsburys entrance.

Additional funding had been successful through the Violence Reduction Unit to pay for high visibility patrols in the hotspot areas of Cramlington.

17 young offenders had been referred to the Youth Justice Service ‘Turnaround’ scheme.

52 ASB letters had been sent to parents of young people involved in ASB and follow up visits conducted.

28 arrests of young people had committed crime in Cramlington; 2 Youth Injunctions were in the process of being applied for and 76 dispersal  orders had been authorised to date.

In response to questions from members, the following information was provided:

Police relied on community intelligence for any offences or crimes taking place.

As well as funding from the Police & Crime Commission, the Violence Reduction Unit also received funding from the Home Office.

A new NPT model helped the uplift in Neighbourhood Police Officers.

If parents were unaware that children were involved in anti-social behaviour, once informed the issue was usually resolved.  Repeat offenders distorted figures.

Acting Inspector Paul Davis continued with information in the Bedlington area:

118 incidents of ASB had been reported in Bedlington in the past 12 months.

Motorcycle ASB had resulted in 173 calls within the last 12 months.

Hotspots on the heatmap showed Bedlington and Bedlington Station.

Section 59 warnings had been issued with one motorcycle being seized.

CCTV covered Bedlington Station which had allowed officers to identify perpetrators and complete home visits in partnership with the Community Safety Team and Bernicia where applicable.

25 ASB letters had been sent to parents of young people involved in ASB.

Follow up visits were conducted in conjunction with housing providers to discuss ASB and the impacts behaviour could have on tenancies.

1 Youth Injunction was in the process of being applied for.

In response to questions, the following information was provided:

A private landlord would be contacted if a tenant was involved in ASB, but usually they were not interested.

Again, if there were any incidents of ASB, the police relied on community intelligence.

Following an incident of ASB, Police Officers would contact the Community Safety Team and if offending was persistent, a Community Order would be issued.

The Police Officers were thanked for their presentations.

RESOLVED that the information be noted.

This item is to:

a.       Receive any new petitions: to receive any new petitions.  The lead petitioner is entitled to briefly introduce their petition by providing a statement in writing, and a response to any petitions received will then be organised for a future meeting;

b.       Consider reports on petitions previously received:

c.        Receive any updates on petitions for which a report was previously considered: any updates will be verbally reported at the meeting.

No petitions had been received; there were no reports or updates to consider.

Previously known as Children's Centres, Northumberland County Council's Family Hubs carry out a range of work in the local community, ranging from birth registration, midwifery/health services and infant feeding support, to primary mental health, community events, relationship support and working with children and families 0-19 years and up to 25 years for SEND.

A presentation will be shared outlining the services of the Family Hub.

Jean Hedley, Family Help Coordination Manager, shared a presentation which outlined the work of the Family Hubs.

The following information was provided:

The Family Hubs had derived from the SureStart centres.

There were 11 purpose built Family Hubs in the central, southeast, west and north localities and 7 dedicated outreach points at fire stations, military bases and primary schools for more vulnerable families.

Family Hub integration was key to establishing and embedding a culture and way on integrated working, bringing projects together from different disciplines and partner organisations.

A plan had been developed to bring together colleagues from health, midwifery, public health and family hubs to network and share ideas involving a programme of locality workforce engagement events which were supported by senior management across all partners.

Early help support requests were triaged in the Early Help Team sitting within the ‘Front Door’.

Information on the Family Hubs could be found on the Council’s website.

The Prevention and Intervention Pathway had been created as a means of having a consistent, science backed, evidence based offer for families.

In response to Covid in 2020, the Prevention and Intervention Pathway had been delivered virtually.

To extend the reach to all families, there had been significant investment into enhancing the digital offer to families to meet their needs.

The Start for Life Offer on the Council’s website had been accessed over 1000 times since March 2023.

In response to a comment on the offer for youth provision and a commitment across all ages in Northumberland, it was stated that a report would be presented to a joint FACs and Health & Wellbeing Scrutiny meeting on youth provision.

A member was pleased that Southeast Family Hubs were using Axminster Close, Community House as an outreach location as there was no Family Hub premises in Cramlington.

The officer was thanked for her presentation.

RESOLVED that the information be noted.

To provide information on the support that they give to the community and youth, working with other partners organisations in the area.

Joe Eltringham, Youth Co-ordinator, Cramlington Town Council shared a presentation on the support given to the community and youth.

The presentation included:

An explanation of what the team did, eg, engagement in partnership work; investment into youth provision; giving young people advice.

The framework which was based on Asset Based Community Development (A,B,C,D) allowed communities to drive the development process themselves.

The networks created through A,B,C,D included Wild Spaces Hub, Heritage Hub, Youth Partnership, ADHD and Autism Network, Dementia Friendly Cramlington, ASB Partnership and Youth Council.

Partnership working included Northumbria Police, Northumberland Fire and Rescue, Northumberland Family Hubs, Manor Walks, Cramlington Voluntary Youth Project, Youth Justice Service, CVS and various youth providers.

Youth Provision – Cramlington Town Council had invested in 3 youth clubs across Cramlington – Youth Partnership, Cramlington Voluntary Youth Project and community centres which hosted youth clubs.

Free school holiday activity had been provided over the summer holidays.

Since March 2022, Cramlington Town Council had their own Youth Council.

Members commented on the following:

The support Cramlington Town Council received for youth provision compared to West Bedlington Town Council.  Mr Eltringham stated that the Town Council did not receive any support with the provision.  There had previously been one Youth Worker designated to Cramlington who operated on a Thursday evening, however that had not been the case for some months.

Good partnership working but more investment was required for other community groups in the county.

The lack of accessibility with public transport in certain areas and the lack of youth provision in other areas of the county.

The issue of the closure of the Youth Club at Seaton Delaval.

Councillor Daley stated that a report on Youth Services would be presented to FACs and a briefing note prepared for a future LAC meeting.

Mr Eltringham was thanked for his presentation.

RESOLVED that the information be noted.

To note the latest version of agreed items for future Local Area Committee meetings (any suggestions for new agenda items will require confirmation by the Chairman of Council after the meeting).

RESOLVED that the work programme be noted.

The next meeting of the Cramlington, Bedlington & Seaton Valley Local Area Committee is Wednesday 18 October 2023.

The next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday 18 October.

To consider such other business, as in the opinion of the Chair, should, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency.