Agenda item

Kirklees Strategic Intelligence Assessment and the Communities Partnership Plan

A report will be submitted which sets out the findings emerging from the annual refresh of the Kirklees Strategic Intelligence Assessment, including a spotlight on road safety and serious violence.

Contact:

Jo Richmond, Head of Communities

Chris Walsh, Safer Kirklees Manager

Lee Hamilton, Safer Kirklees Manager

 

Minutes:

A report was submitted which set out the findings emerging from the annual refresh of the Kirklees Strategic Intelligence Assessment (SIA), including a spotlight on road safety and serious violence.

 

Jill Greenfield - Service Director Customer and Communities, Jo Richmond - Head of Communities, Chris Walsh and Lee Hamilton – Safer Kirklees Managers and Jaqui Theaker – Data and Insight Enablement Lead were in attendance to present the report and answer questions.

 

Councillor Carole Pattison, the Cabinet Member for Learning, Aspiration and Communities was also present, as well as representatives of partner organisations; Superintendent Helen Brear from West Yorkshire Police and Chris Bell from West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue who was the Chair of the Road Safety Partnership Group.

 

It was explained that the refresh of the SIA was undertaken on an annual basis to ensure that the themes within the Partnership Plan remained valid and to highlight any exceptions, trends or potential areas for future focus. A full review was undertaken every three years.

 

The SIA was subject to discussion with partners and theme groups prior to being finalised. The recommendation was that the existing themes should be retained with a continued focus on the existing priorities listed below:

·       Violence and Exploitation;

including implementation of the new Serious Violence Duty and the response to the West Yorkshire Violence against Women and Girls Strategy; prevention of young people becoming involved in Urban Street Gangs and a focus on understanding the levels of repeat incidents of domestic abuse.

·       Neighbourhood Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour;

Including the development of the Action Plan to supplement the Police response through a place lens.

·       Inclusive and Resilient Communities;

Including ensuring robust and supportive services to meet needs and mitigate impact in respect of migration and asylum and prevention work associated with hate crime,

·       Reducing Risk;

Including the establishment of a partnership body to steer delivery and oversight of effective prevention, treatment, recovery and enforcement in relation to drugs.

 

The report included the key findings from the refresh of the SIA with a specific focus on road safety, as a top priority for local people in respect of community safety, and serious violence, which was a key priority for the partnership.

 

In respect of road safety, the focus was on reducing the numbers of people killed or seriously injured and improving the perceptions of road safety associated with speeding vehicles and inconsiderate or dangerous parking.

 

Chris Bell explained that the Partnership Road Safety Strategy and Action Plan aligned with the strategic aims of the Kirklees strategy and the Police and Crime Plan for West Yorkshire including ‘Vision Zero’ with the stated aim of reducing killed and seriously interested by 50% by 2030. Partners included Safer Kirklees, West Yorkshire Police, Highways, Health, the Safety Camera Partnership and Parking Enforcement and a range of different initiatives and engagement activity was being undertaken with local communities to reduce the risk and challenge the perceptions about the safety risk. A data-driven response was used to ensure that efforts and resources were focussed where they were most needed.

 

In respect of serious violence, the approach was based on prevention, early intervention, disruption and enforcement using data and intelligence to work with partners with a focus on identified wards.

 

Helen Brear assured the Committee that serious violence and road safety remained key priorities. Helen presented the statistics relevant to overall crime in the district, which included a reduction in the figures for incidents of serious violence and anti-social behaviour in Kirklees. There had been an increase in possession of weapons offences due to targeted activity.

 

She explained that the approach was intelligence-led policing involving collaborative and innovative working with partners and communities on specific projects and details were given of a number of initiatives that were yielding positive results.

 

In respect of road safety the aim was to produce a dataset intelligence document to inform the approach, along with consideration of national and regional good practice. The four main issues in terms of road safety were excessive speed, using a mobile phone whilst driving, driving without a seatbelt and drink driving.

 

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

Road Safety:

·     Speeding was anti-social behaviour and should be recognised as such. Road safety was the issue that was consistently raised as a concern by residents. The Police online reporting system did not allow people to report speeding as a crime; this had been pointed out previously but not resolved. Superintendent Brear assured Members that road safety was a priority for West Yorkshire Police and undertook to consider and respond to the issue raised about reporting speeding via the website. She outlined other ways that issues could be reported, such as using the 101 telephone number and via the Neighbourhood Policing Teams. If a road safety problem was identified this would be dealt with by the police and partners through enforcement and education measures.

·     As mentioned in the deputation, people’s concerns about safety affects their willingness to walk and cycle. If analysis of the data gathered by devices to measure speed indicated that the 85th percentile speed was over the speed limit, then this was reality not perception.

·     Work was undertaken with the Highways department and reference to traffic surveys to determine whether the issue was one of perception and would be followed-up by engagement with local communities about the findings.

·     It was queried how the data gathered from the Speed Indicator Devices (SIDs) was used.

·     Collisions and damage to property from vehicles, in a particular location, on a regular basis, indicated a road safety issue and increased risk. The understanding was that the data on non-injury incidents could be extracted but this would be confirmed and an update provided for the Committee.

·     The Road Safety Partnership Group was developing an intelligence package that would provide a wider picture than just data on collisions.

·     The data from the SIDs would be analysed by Highways and implementation of appropriate measures prioritised according to the level of risk across the district.

·     Work was being undertaken at regional level to identify those areas in priority need of works, intervention and education.

·     Those who travelled at excessive speed were in the minority but enforcement was needed.

·     Although the numbers were small and were reducing the data indicated that almost half of those killed or seriously injured were cyclists and it was questioned what was being done to address this.

·     Further detail was given in respect of the statistics involving cyclists. The police were working closely with partners on this issue including promoting awareness of the new legislation, which afforded greater safeguarding for cyclists, and undertaking enforcement.

·     The good work being undertaken by the partnership was acknowledged.

·     The triangulation of the information and data was important and welcomed as it may be that some communities were not raising road safety issues due to other concerns being more of a priority.

Serious Violence

·     It was interesting to hear the statistics were reducing significantly as there were perceptions about the numbers of young people carrying of knives. Perception of the level of serious crime could impact on people’s confidence to go out.

·     In respect of the numbers of people in treatment associated with drugs and alcohol, this was a complex area. A Drugs and Alcohol Strategy was in development and local providers were making significant efforts to ensure that there were more accessible points for entry into services. There had been a period when access to treatment had become more difficult and the pandemic had impacted people’s ability to access services. Treatment and recovery provision were being built up and there were strong links with the housing, domestic abuse and other teams.

·     The reasons for young people becoming involved in gangs were complicated and there were many different factors. Engagement was being undertaken by partners, including the third sector, to capture the voices of young people and to aim to deliver the services that they say they need.

·     The work being undertaken with schools was welcomed. Young people should be provided with information on how to report issues if they felt unsafe and then be part of the solution.

·     The Police were working alongside the voluntary sector and education partners to build the trust needed to be able to better engage with young people.

·     In respect of the involvement of ward councillors, the Safer Kirklees briefings were a source of information for local councillors on the issues in the ward including those in respect of serious violence or road safety and provided a forum to allow discussion of the priorities and proposed actions in each area.

·     The Road Safety Partnership aimed to involve all partners where possible including engagement in specific areas where appropriate.

·     In terms of police activities funded by particular wards a report on outcomes would be provided to the local councillors and the local communities. Such tailored initiatives were available to any other wards in the district. There was a need to ensure that the results and learning from such initiatives were fed back to the partnership to take forward.

·     The figures for serious violence for Kirklees indicated that it was a safe place and it was acknowledged that there was a need to improve upon positive communication to improve perceptions, in a sensitive manner, and to promote the positive work being undertaken.

 

Resolved -

(1)      That the officers and representatives of partners be thanked for their presentations.

(2)      That it be noted that the issue raised in respect of not being able to report speed using the West Yorkshire Police online crime reporting portal is to be considered and an update provided.

(3)      That it is recommended that the importance of working and engaging with Ward Councillors on issues in their areas be embraced by all parties.

(4)      That further information be provided for Members in relation to:

(i) the responses made/action taken in response to the data gathered from speed indication devices and how this is shared with partners.

(ii) how data in respect of collisions not involving injury is collated and utilised.

 

Supporting documents: