Summary - Shire Hall

A meeting summary and some personal notes authored by Cllr. Gareth Kitchen, SDC.

Brief report feeding into the Community Services and Licensing Committee at SDC is here.

Webcast of meeting. Agenda packs etc.

A few apologies. Space on the panel for a Green Party member. Minutes of the previous meeting approved and no declarations of interest.

The main purpose of the meeting was to support the proposed precept from the PCC.

The PCC is seeking the full £14 (4.5% increase) the maximum he is permitted to levy.

The PCC kicks off with an overview of the budget. Wide pressure across all forces. Govt. hasn't given them full cover for pay rises, NI and drift. With the 20,000 uplift 25/26 will see big rise in drift (pay increase after 4-5 years service), financial penalty if numbers not retained. So Police staff have to be cut. Extra £1.5m for Neighbourhood Police. No new money for capital investment for the last four years. XL bully dogs housing. Failure to deliver new funding formula causes problems for rural forces. 7th lowest funded force per 1,000 population. New Govt. must address this.

OPCC Interim Chief finance Officer then goes into detail. Bulk expenditure relates to staffing. 50% of budget relates to police officers pay. Cannot reduce number of officers. Staffing is significant and where cuts will have to fall. Most other costs are fixed, limited flexibility. No capital grants. Borrowing has to therefore increase.

As things stand things don't balance, pressures vs. funding. So efficiencies have to be made:-

Officer overtime, Staff overtime, Mutually Agreed Resignation Scheme, Frozen posts, Re balancing of Neighbourhood Policing Establishment, Third party, regional and national contracts, Service Choice Reviews & OPCC Efficiencies. Totaling £12m. Reserves are going to be used a bit more but at absolute minimum.

OPCC Interim Chief finance Officer offers confidence and gives assurance that the savings are deliverable and hands over to the Temporary Chief Constable.

Temp CC been in post for six months. Crime is more complex and volume of certain crimes is changing. Crime moving to behind closed doors (online). 20% of Glos. crime is domestic abuse. 300 referrals a week for online child abuse. Need to keep most vulnerable safe. Need to have best ICT to deal with crime. Implementing new crime recording system, the last force in the country to do so. Working with SW forces to collaborate. Never in 35 years service has the Temp CC seen such financial stretch. But workforce is motivated and confident.

PCC says with deep regret that along with Chief they will have to face redundancies and staff cuts to balance the budget. They are cornered with their backs to the wall.

Questions

I kicked off the questions with one about premises. There has been a relentless rise, but an additional £4m. in recent years and I wanted to know why. A long answer came back, citing utilities, facilities management, day-to-day lifecycle costs, business rates in addition to the PFI costs which go up by inflation..... But even so, but I'm still not sure why such a big increase..... Seems like more costs coming with old estate.

A Cllrs. asks about bench marking. How does Glos compare to other forces. PCC focuses on MSG (most similar group) but there's not just one measure. The Deputy CC jumps in to say that we are compared with North Yorkshire, Wiltshire, Suffolk, West Sussex, West Mercia, Cambridgeshire, Devon and Cornwall. She looks at performance, charge rates etc. Glos. positive outcomes. 23 out of 43. Glos is good at out of court disposals. Not so good at charges and that's going to be a focus this year.

A Cllr asks what are we going to get for out £168m (half a million a day). What the 10 biggest items of expenditure. PCC says this will be detailed in the Council Tax pack leaflet. Temp CC jumps in again with stats. Custody suite at WW has 9,000+ detainees every year. Also, share arrest rates (mainly men) on domestic abuse. 5,000 mental health incidents, not normally crime related. 47,000 crimes reported every year. Not all about crime, duties elsewhere.

Cllr. asks about NI contributions, maybe Police should be exempt. PCC says it's just the way the system works. Cllr asks about PCSO's. Neighbourhood Policing is a combination of staff and warranted officers. Problem solving policing, hot-spots. Will number of PCSO's going up or down? CC can't comment, operational, reviewing this right now. PCC commends current Govt. for 13,000 extra Neighbourhood policing.

Now questions on the mutually agreed resignation scheme, £1.5m and whether warranted officers doing the work of police staff. CC says this means reconfiguration, will work these through. Excellence in basics, will ensure basic service. 110 PCSO's currently.

Cllr. interested in Community Safety. Small groups working in partnership. Small grants budget. Will this continue? PCC says pressure, every aspect under review. Small projects may have to go. Some money in team for ASB, looking at how to deliver. CC comes back to excellence in basics..... Um... this sounds grim.... focus on prevention isn't going to be there.... PCC jumps in to say there is money for district shared partnership...... matched funding for common problems..... PCC wants to do more on ASB case reviews, helping victims. Cllr asks about the cost of the mounted unit. £230k for 25/26.

Cllr ask questions about Police pay and news article about some officers using food banks. PCC says that is probably an old story from a few years ago. Very tough for the newest officers traveling to the Sabrina Centre. Previous CC arranged with GCC for food vouchers to help. But pay rises since and band zero removed, things have moved on. Workload needs to be managed, every officer needs a laptop, need better ICT systems.

I get to throw a curved ball question. Here was an opportunity to raise a long standing issue off the back of a Perception of Crime survey and confidence in Policing. It was relating to four black sixth formers given a shakedown by Police outside Stroud's prestigious Grammar recently. The question also links into SDC's EDIEB consultation too. Having the PCC and CC in the room it seemed more than appropriate to get this tetchy subject on the record. Why members of the black community in Gloucestershire are SEVEN times more likely to be Stop Searched and subject to Use of Force than a white person. I thought the PCC deflected the question with 'find rate', however the CC answered directly and straight forwardly, I thought.

Another Cllr, representing the most diverse ward in the county chips in and ask how can we make sure that these surveys (Perception of Crime) are absolutely inclusive. He thinks there's more work to be done. DPCC says the current survey is not statistically relevant per district. DPCC is willing to work with Cllrs. Surveys was for CSP's and OPCC wants to improve this.

Motion to approve precept passed unanimously.

Update from PCC, report taken as read. But I asked the DPCC if the Crossing campaign was raised at his visit to Thomas Keeble School the day before.

Meeting concludes.....

Official Minutes