Councillor Andrew
Retter attended the meeting as the
petition organiser as those residents that had signed the petition
were fearful of reprisals from those individuals that were
displaying anti-social behaviour.
Concerns and suggestions raised at the meeting included the
following:
- When
Zurich moved out of its offices, the car park had been left empty
and open. Young people had since been
spending a lot of time in the car park and were displaying
anti-social behaviour. Residents had
made a number of complaints about the behaviour to the Safer
Neighbourhood Team;
- A number
of years ago, there had been a dispersal zone in operation in the
area but this was no longer in place;
- Councillor Retter had been in the
area a while ago with a couple of residents and a police officer
when they witnessed some young people playing football. These young people then set fire to a pile of
rubbish;
- Two
mosquitoes had been installed in the Waukesha Building car park
which were disturbing the young people and moving them
on. However, it was noted that one of
the mosquitoes had been moved to face the ground which reduced its
effectiveness;
- Two burly
local residents had taken to going out in the evening to move the
young people on and there were worries that this might progress to
groups of vigilantes patrolling the streets; and
- The
Council had fined a local pub for noise and anti-social behaviour
incidents.
Councillor Douglas
Mills listened to the concerns of the petitioners and responded to
the points raised. It was noted that
there were a limited number of temporary CCTV cameras available
– four that would fit onto large lampposts and two that would
fit the smaller ones. The need for CCTV
in this area was not as great as in other areas where the problems
were worse. As such, Councillor Mills
advised that a temporary CCTV camera could be installed but that no
definite timescales could be applied as to when this was likely to
be.
In addition,
consideration was being given to the erection of fencing around the
Zurich car park and the gate being locked as an added deterrent to
stop the young people from congregating there.
Councillor Mills
advised that the Council would be reliant on the Safer
Neighbourhood Team to identify anyone displaying anti-social
behaviour. Although the police were currently stopping these young
people when they were caught, they were not being referred to Early
Intervention Panels so that they could be given Acceptable
Behaviour Contracts.
RESOLVED: That the Cabinet Member noted
the views of the petitioners, and advised that:
- the LBH
Community Safety Team will continue dialogue with the managing
agents to encourage improvements to the car park area in
Ferndown;
- the
Police Safer Neighbourhoods Team (SNT) has been requested to patrol
the area in the evenings and, from time to time, after
11pm;
- the
Police will advise youths not to play football in the car park
area, and take a robust stance to stop the playing of football in
this area as it annoys residents;
- a
mosquito unit has been supplied to Waukesha Bearings and has been
installed in the covered car park area to deter young people from
going there;
- the
Police SNT has identified of some of the youths causing anti-social
behaviour warning letters have been sent to the youth’s
parents;
- if
evidence is available against any individual offenders, full
consideration will be given to prosecution, fixed penalty notices,
Anti-Social Behaviour Orders or other suitable enforcement or
preventative measures;
- a
temporary wireless CCTV installation fixed to a lamp post for a
period of 3 months can be considered; and
- residents
should continue to report incidents to the Police on 0300 123 1212
or the Community Safety Team via 0800 694 0240 (for non-crimes) to
build up a picture of whether incidents are increasing or
decreasing.
Reasons for recommendation
To address the
concerns of the residents.
Alternative options considered
The possibility of
fixed permanent CCTV has been considered but
discounted. The costs are considerable
and, when installing cameras, we have to consider necessity,
proportionality and the likelihood of intrusion into the privacy of
people not connected with the disorderly behaviour. This is an
obstacle in this instance. The
deployment of temporary CCTV would enable an assessment to be made
as to whether the problem is a temporary one, capable of
resolution, which would avoid some of the problems associated with
a permanent installation.