Draft Minutes of London Road LAT meeting 9th October 2018

Draft Minutes 9th October 2018
  1. Welcome, apologies and introductions

Inspector Paul Ransome , Sharon Baker PCSO, Kristy Munroe, (+ partner), Lucy Dunleavy (Vice Chair), Martyn Dunleavy, Sandy Crowhurst (NLCA), Elspeth Broady,Allan Briggenshaw, Mark de Boissiere, Diane Chandler, Pete Wileman (BHCC, Safer Communities), Lucy Walker (UOS), David Edwards (UOS), Philip Wells, Corinne Lamb (note-taker)

– Council Officer Tim Read will now be working in the area of vulnerable young people

– Cllr West says he has made representations against granting a licence for the OctoberFest – he successfully asked for an updated “Outdoor Event Policy” e.g. for Hove Lawns, Preston Park, Level. This will be brought early in the new year (2019)

Apologies:

Penny Morley, Cllr. Pete West, Cath Prenton, Janet Becket (Firestation)- Holiday, Mike Hedgethorne, Tony Firmin.

  1. Minutes of last meeting

accepted subject to : there was an omission of name of one of the speakers of Longley estate- will look up – Answer is: “Stephen Murden)

– date of next meeting 13th November

  1. Main item – Policing – especially the Level and drugs – Inspector Paul Ransome

  • There is a general concern of drug dealing and taking on the level and the surrounding area.

  • The phone box outside the Clyde Road shop is a prevalent example of drug taking, which continues to happen. *AP: Sharon (PCSO) will look into this

  • There is a specific concern of stabbing on the level.

Paul Ransome report

  • Level is a drug haven; even though the Level is known as one of the best skate parks in the area and beyond.

  • There are lots of complexities.

    • There is a number of organized groups of adults, who groom youths to deal the drugs. They then return the money to top dealer.

    • The police need to address where they are going after and bridge this with intelligence to where is place is where supplies are stored.

    • They are going to do this by having officers going in and out of the level in plain clothes, drug dogs and they have been able to take off the level 2-3 dealers a week and make arrests.

    • After arrests they will identify the person, test drugs, and there are knives involved and piecing together the picture, also what County lines they are coming from.

    • At present the step for the police is that they need to bring together a picture of; where they are coming from, what situations the kids they use are coming from, how did they get to be doing it.

    • There is also a issue of safeguarding, in terms of: is the child a victim or a criminal?

    • A solution to stop the issue spiraling out of control for the child, is addressing how can the police stop the kids from getting involved in this

Recent stabbing on the Level.

  • There was one group of youths dealing who then met another kid dealing and this caused an altercation, resulting in a stabbing.

  • The kid who owned the knife actually stabbed his own friend. There was one knife 2 people stabbed, arrested near the Level all were arrested. All involved were young. There is a massive need for the council and the police to come to a solution together on how to tackle this issue. It is such a complex issue.

  • Chief Inspector Rachel Swinney has put together group of officers that are focused on the level, in terms of where the drugs are, where the main areas are, who is responsible (adults), and the safeguarding issues around these youths.

  • The Council has 3 services going to the level. Called the Extended Adolescence Service (POD), which is a social work team, part of the Youth Offending service, made of multi agency teams. If the child is involved with these teams, they are seen as one of the most at risk and vulnerable.

  • There is also an organization named Audio Active. They go down to the Level 2 times a week. Have had good feedback from them.

  • St Giles trust, have been commissioned. They are made up of former criminals, whose job it is to extract the youths from the area.

  • Home office made a visit and provided a Locality Review, to address what is the problem. As a result the Council has now got money to address the issue of drug taking with the resources it has. They have around £160,000, which has paid for a new post to be created. The rest of the money is to be spent on communications and staff and training provided by St Giles Trust.

  • There is a massive intelligence gap between what the communities know and what the Council and the Police don’t know.

    • The issue needs to be reported and if the public is worried about reporting it, it should be seen as child exploitation and a safeguarding issue. Don’t be scared to report.

  • A result for the police would be in a couple of months, to get the adults dealing to other adults and have got rid of the kids dealing completely, this is the police’s main issue and focus.

  • The way they are going to go about putting this in place is that there will be a vehicle parked at the Level on a daily basis for a month of so, with officers patrolling. There are also covert operations happening, which is a massive resource. This should disperse the issue, which could lead to the dealing going make it go underground. There will be a new camera to coming in which is 360 degrees, this will help them to actual have evidence. The camera would displace the criminals, but is also useful to monitor the people involved.

  • The Council will be running a campaign in 2-3 weeks time around the issue of kids and drugs.

  • The arrests need to be made as it can also come under the modern slavery legislation.

  • Evidence is crucial. Leads to long term prison

  • The short-term goal is getting the drugs contained to the Level. This takes time to move it on, they need to understand it more before they are able move in and pick them off.

  • The ultimate goal is to make the Level a positive and safe place to be.

Questions and issues from residents

  • Resident has had drugs being dealt on their doorstep. This mainly involved teens in cars and has been going on for a long time. They had a takeaway shop near them called Peri Peri, which has gone now, which was where the some of the dealings were taking place. This is organized crime. This case is being looked into.

  • If a similar case happens again, residents need to get the cars’ number plate details so that the police can pick the car up on their system. It then needs to be called into 101 for intelligence purposes. This can be done by phone, online etc.

  • There has been a local article in the Argus, covering the issue of gangs, and knives that have been found in flower beds. Police are aware of this story. So much so that there has been a recent knife amnesty, to help address this issue.

    • They also carry out sweeps of the Level for needles etc and do pick out where they are.

    • The police have the power to stop and search kids carry knifes when intelligence suggests. This again needs to be called into 999 and cameras will be looked at.

  • There have recently been “all-night raves” at the Level

    • There are two sides to this problem, which need assessing. Either is it an Environment and Health issue or a noise issue. Police will only step in if it genuinely a “rave”.

    • If the issue is a Environmental and Health issue. They have a duty to investigate, and action can be taken.

    • There are Brighton Council “Field Officers” in 9 areas across the police force, who can deal with it but they are not 24 hour.

  • Video camera’s are worn by PCSOs. Videos on phones from members of the public are more in the nature of “intel” as they are not sufficient to count as evidence.

Reporting a incident

  • What should we know?

    • Each time a incident is called in, a serial number is created, along with all the details of what the incident is referring to.

    • Each incident is assessed on is it a threat, has anyone been harmed, who is at risk and is there any one who is vulnerable involved. It is worth pointing out “threat”. This will get it processed on the system quicker, and pieced together better.

Given the fact the people involved are so young, does the education authority get involved?

  • Some of the young people do still go to school and some have fallen out of school. Each case has a social worker looking at the factors involved.

OktoberFest sound level

  • It is too late for this year as is already being set up and happening. It would be worth intercepting the planning for next year. We need to get evidence before it comes round again.

  1. Update on planning issues

    • – Longley Estate: the deadline for comments was 20th September, but later comments can be seen on the planning page of the Council (BH2018/02598) – determination is set for Thursday November 22nd

Comments.

  • New bar and brewery opened in Elder Place. They have a 20-year lease – this seems strange.

  • It was thought that Café Plenty didn’t know about the development – but the Developers had said that in fact there had been conversations with Cafe Plenty.

    • – Vantage Point: the developers have kept in touch, but declined to come a make a presentation to the LAT today. The public display material from the public consultation at (CCK /Clarendon) has been kindly made available and is able to be viewed on the LAT website.

                • There had been invitations to go to the consultation.

  1. Other updates

  • Please note the Valley Gardens project has started

  • Does the LAT want an AGM in November, December, ideas??

  • Licensing Consultation

    • This actually closed on 4th October.

  • Feedback from Abacus house – their contract is continuing as before.

6. AOB.

  • Link up with Prestonville Residents Association.

  • The idea of linking up with the Prestonville Residents Association (Brighton Greenway and the surrounding area) for action days. One project that was highlighted was that there is going to be a day to clean up the Viaduct Bridge, which has become a huge mess, as there has not be a lot done to clean it up.

  • The issue has been taken it up with Network Rail and City Clean and the two have been meeting. The two will come back in 6 months with a proposal.

  • There is also a further issue with the pathway up to Seven Dials that is used by pedestrians is in a bad state and is overgrown by plants etc. The proposal to the Council is to ask them to have the island in the middle of the road at present moved to make it safer, and to take into consideration disabled access up New England Road, and have a continuous pavement on the north side.

  • There is Section 278 council money available for this.

  • There is a consultation on 27th November

  • The meeting agreed to support this project.

7. Close at around 19:45