London Road Action Team (LAT) 20/2/24


6:30pm- 8:15pm

Calvary Church Building – Viaduct Road

  1. Welcome and apologies

Apologies
Lucy Dunleavy
Tony and Mike, Catherine Clement, Andy Keeffe, PCSO George Messer, Cllr Ellen McLeay, PCSO Alex Kartanos, PCSO Lauren Lewis

Welcome
Sarah Lewis- Reporter and resident
Raphael Hill Councillor- Green Round Hill
Sue Shanks
Kevin C + Lisette Clyde Road
Romy Adams
Nikki Harper
Me Salli – Btn Market
Madhavi – Am/PM
Luxx Lounge owner –
Carmile – Brighton Patisserie
Sylvia Chilton
Cath Prenton
Judi Lynn
Richard Grills – Presuming Ed

Claire (??)
Chris Sevink

Elspeth Broady

Sandy Crowhurst
Kerry Howard- Circus Mews- Next to Carters
Sarah Heath- Preston Road


Charlie- PCSO-
Tilly- Earlie PCSO London road
Andy Saville- Force lead for Anti-Social beha8viour and Immediate Justice

Guy- (London Road)
Lesley Howeth- Red route
Peter Turner – Project Manager – Red Route

Naomi Barnard – UOS

28+ present – with some names not recorded accurately

  1. Minutes. Date of next meeting (held over) 26th March- Agreed
  2. London Road “Red Route” – final update before implementation of experimental Red Route. Council Officer Peter Turner
  • Planning has been happening since 2021- the link on piece of paper given out at meeting.
  • Local traders have had a meeting regarding the concerns this was held in October.
  • Email to follow up on link given out on sheet at meeting
    Peter turner spoke:
    Mandate was given in response to  the Brighton Bus company in June 2021. It is a experimental traffic order.
  • The experiment will be initially 6 month of consultation, then there will be a further 12 months.
    There was no cash in 2022, but the council got money in 2023 from Brighton buses. In September they held an engagement exercise. One of the main issues is loading bays and the lack of loading bays. However, the restrictions will not be changing much. The loading bays will be monitored by CCTV. Resident bays, shared bays etc will all be enforced by an officer. The signage will be bigger.
  • The transport sustainability committee met in November 2023. The experimental consolation and implementation will start on 15th April, this is also when consultation and feedback can start. The red lines and signs will go in, in mid-March. The CCTV cameras are already in place, apart from one new one.
  • Peter Turner was assured that all mailouts went out to all households and businesses. However, none, apparently, were received by Preston Road businesses.
  • A question to Peter Turner was raised: How do you clarify your feedback to go ahead with this scheme, at what point do you go ahead with it?
    • From the September consultation there were 299 responses. 141 for and 357 against.
    • This was not consistent with what some of the business owners view as one business received 1,000 signatures. In defence Peter Turner said that all received petitions went to him.
  • This experiment is going to cost £30 k for the whole scheme.
  • Another question from the floor was: Why not enforce the yellow lines already? In response it was said that yellow lines are only monitored by officers. It was also argued by councillor that it will improve road safety, air quality, better bus times. There is data to support this from the past.
  • There are also going to be an additional 2 loading bays, which came out of the meeting in November, and it came from the suggestion from Poundland. It will be nearest to the butchers, Richer Sounds and Dominoes. None of these could make the meeting.
  • The question was then raised by the floor: Independent traders come to meetings how it is that they don’t get a loading bay next to their shop, where is are the loading bays going to be?
    • The reply was: the bays are going to be extended and there will be exceptions, which include blue badge owners, who can unload and load. The decision to go ahead was made by the committee.
    • The enforcement will be better for the existing loading bays.
  • 2 questions from the floor then followed: How would the removal vans load and unload, can they get a dispensation? and how do business owners cross the road safely with all their produce, has this been thought about?
    • Peter said he will look into how removal vans will load and then cross safely and report back at next visit– Action point
    • There will not be the need for officers as they will be able to enforce a PCN, so overall better enforcement.
    • Loading bays outside Taj may have to be enlarged, but it is difficult to put in new bays.
    • Peter and his team also stated that there are a lot of 4x4s parking along the London Road. This was not agreed by everyone on the floor.
    • Peter stated also that after 18 months the experiment will go back to committee. They don’t know what the effect will be until day one of the experiment, i.e. 15th April.
    • They are coming back after it has been in place for a month. Peter’s official response email was given to Philip that will go out to the LAT mailing list. parkingprojects@brighton-hove.gov.uk.
  • After considerable discussion we moved to item 4 at around 20:25
  1. Policing
    1. Policing – update on issues around “Signalman” / London Road station and shop-lifting/ASB/ youth disorder in London Road
    2. T/Superintendent Andy SAVILLE, Force Anti-Social Behaviour Lead, Immediate Justice Lead
  • The Immediate Justice scheme came from government and the Police Crime Commissioner (PCC) Katy Bourne in march last year.
  • Below is the link to the immediate justice website: https://www.sussex-pcc.gov.uk/our-priorities/partnership-working/immediate-justice/
  • The aim is to repair the crimes, reducing the amount of crime, increasing the trust and when its reported it will be acted on and bring community spirit.
  • The PCC had £1000 and across Sussex got given a million and a further million for next year. There is further funding for hot spot areas, and police funding of £1.4 million. Sussex is leading the way.
  • The plan involves having officers and PCSOs more visible.
  • Immediate Justice is a victim and community-led initiative. It will be a little bit restrictive towards graffiti. Nothing new but the legal framework behind it will free up court’s time and benefits the wider community.
  • It is aimed at the low severity offences and recognise the crime and wants to give back to the community. There is a programme manager and 3 new posts being created within this programme as well as a immediate justice officer.
  • Case officers will work with the youth justice and then deliver the reparative courses. The guidance for this comes from 12-17 guidance from the government.
  • Youth justice was a little hesitant but did the benefit. It is not about the criminalising young people but to restore justice and help the youth person give back to the community. It gives them the opportunity to do better. Similar to the probation service.
  • The youth justice team also have 3 new officers and have increased the service. This has come from 2 granted application funds for local and national use.
  • The Business crime reduction (BCRP) team are involved but mainly focus on shoplifting. Police have access to their tools to reduce all crimes.
  • Immediate Justice is a pilot scheme and Sussex is the first to put in place before a national roll out. The full model for adults and youth is happening in Brighton.
  • The whole of Sussex, both East and West is covered with a youth team but they need another service for the whole age range.
  • There is a matrix to score the offence and then it goes to delivery officers and then continues up the chain of command and severity.  
  • May 2024 is when they aim to have the whole programme working in East and West Sussex. It works on a case-by-case basis and previous behaviour and any that fails in out court basis will be taken on by the immediate justice team.  
  • The way to report these low offences are if the offender is there at the time of call, call 999 or 111 if it happened yesterday etc.
  • If the person does not engage or wish to engage with the programme it is not the right action. If they don’t comply it goes on a police database.
  • 66 cases have been taken up by immediate justice so far.
  • It is key for the police to make the right decision regarding each offender. At the end of the day, they need to know it has damaged people etc in the community.
  • The parents’ response is worked on case by case and dealt with by the youth justice team.
  • If they repeat offend and don’t want to comply, the case is taken to court and higher. Immediate Justice is just one option the police have.  The case is also referred to the correct team and they will talk to the families and guardians. The police don’t want to take cases up higher if they don’t have to.     
  • The team have youth officers who talk with the local authority. This is a joined-up approach with a child first approach at the centre.
  • The younger children will be delt with by youth services etc, this includes children with Special Education Needs (SEN). There is not a one size fits all model. They recognise that teams cannot support these children in the way that is always best in every case.
  • Early signs have shown that the programme has been very successful but they know there is still a lot to do.

Examples of immediate justice were shown to meeting.

  • The next steps are making sure that they have the model fully working throughout Sussex listening to all partners. They chose one area to transform which was the Level to start with.
  • Two questions were raised by the floor: Could there be a follow-on group for the offenders? Second question was: Abacus issues how would we deal with complaints?
    • The individuals need to feel that the police want to make use of them and they are given the chance to volunteer in their own time.
    • Immediate justice could work with offenders but this would need consent if the case happened on private property.
    • Andy Saville will take these suggestions/ ideas back to the team- Action point
  • The key behind all of these cases is still Report, Report, Report. It is all heavily intelligence-led.
  • Sussex police have also started to use Artificial Intelligence.
  • In terms of how immediate it will be is down to the specific case. It is a national name; it will be swift. The plan from government is that each case will be dealt within 48hrs of the offence taken place.
  • Reports will be taken seriously and how swiftly it takes will get the best outcome for all involved.
  • Putting it Right project run by BCRP lead the programme.
  • Part of the programme is that the individuals have the choice to wear high vis jackets, but this not mandatory.
  • It is important that the programme doesn’t impact the individual’s future opportunities (work, school etc).
  • The ages that have completed Immediate Justice are 75% youth and 7 adults to date.
  • So far, the most common age group that the team have seen are 14–15-year-olds and the most common offence is criminal damage.
  • The programme will take away the backlog on the high-risk offences. 
  1. Note any business to carry over to next meeting and close

Meeting closed at 20:20 approx – with questions still being taken individually.