Agenda and minutes

The Chairman extended a welcome to those present.

The Chairman varied the order of business as shown on the agenda and the Minute reflects the order in which the items were considered at the meeting.

Consider Minute of meeting held on 28 August 2015.   (Copy attached.)  

There had been circulated copies of the Minute of the meeting held on 28 August 2015.   

DECISION

APPROVED the Minute.

4.1    With reference to paragraph 3.2, Councillor Turnbull advised that he had received a letter dated 2 July 2005 from the Rt Hon David Mundell MP advising that Section 33 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994 contained a refund mechanism to ensure that VAT was not a cost borne by local taxation.  To qualify for this, a body must have the power to draw funding directly from local taxation.  The previous local police forces and fire and rescue services qualified for this reduction, because they were partly funded through the council tax precept.  In 2012 following the merge into single national bodies, Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service were funded directly by the Scottish Government rather than through any local taxes, and so did not fit under that criteria.   In 2011 the Scottish Government was warned of this consequence of changing from regional police and fire services to a single authority.  The Scottish Government’s own business case predicated that the benefits of merger outweighed the loss of any VAT refunds, and so the Scottish Government continued restructuring with that in mind.   The restructuring was the decision of the Scottish Government, made with the full knowledge of the VAT consequences of their decisions.

         DECISION

         NOTED.

4.2    With reference to paragraph 4.1 (b) (i) it was confirmed that Councillor Stewart would liaise with David Mallin regarding road signs in car parks.

         DECISION

         NOTED.

4.3    With reference to paragraph 4.1 (b) (ii) it was confirmed that the target figure for Priority 5 would be dealt with in the Police report.

         DECISION

         NOTED.                        

4.4    With reference to paragraph 4.3 it was noted that at the meeting of Council of 7 October 2015 the recommendation in that a report be prepared for the Council on the Future of the Pathways Project and that Officers would promote the young drivers initiative and a communications plan would be put together to ensure all avenues of communication were covered, had been approved.            

         DECISION

         NOTED.

4.5    With reference to paragraph 6.2 (b) (i) a report on decriminalisation of parking enforcement in the Scottish Borders would be dealt with at this meeting.

         DECISION

         NOTED.

4.6    With reference to paragraph 6.2(b)(ii) information on parking tickets would be dealt with in the Police report.

         DECISION

         NOTED.

4.7    With reference to paragraph 6.4(b)(i)  information relating to cardiac arrests would be dealt with in the Fire and Rescue Service report.

         DECISION

         NOTED.                        

Consider report by Service Director Commercial Services on the progress of the Council in relation to Decriminalised Parking Enforcement.  (Copy attached.)

There had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Commercial Services presenting an update on the progress of the Council in relation to Decriminalised Parking Enforcement.  The report explained that following the withdrawal of the traffic warden service there had been a much reduced monitoring and enforcement service of vehicular waiting and loading restrictions within the area’s towns and villages.  This in turn had led to reduced compliance, poorer traffic management and increased public complaints.   An officer/member Working Group was set up in the summer of 2014 to explore the options available to the Council.  The Working Group had identified that the best way forward for the Council in terms of traffic management in Scottish Borders towns was to apply to Scottish Ministers to introduce Decriminalised Parking Enforcement.  Mr Brian Young, Network Manager emphasised however that Scottish Borders Council had yet to determine its position on a preferred way forward.  Mr Young answered questions relating to legislation and on suggested other methods of controlling parking.   Chief Inspector McLean gave assurance that Police Officers enforced legislation and parking tickets were issued in all towns in the Scottish Borders.

DECISION

NOTED the updated position in regard to the on-street parking control and thanked Mr Young for his attendance. 

6.1    Police

         Chief Superintendent G. Imery referred to the early retirement of the Chief Constable and advised the process was ongoing to identify his replacement and interviews would take place next week.   The Chair of the SPA was keen that the newly appointed Chief Constable would be identified by the beginning of December.   She went on to give information relating to the outcomes of the First National Staff Survey which had been published at the beginning of October. Engagement of staff in the survey amounted to over 50%.  There were  issues identified during the survey many of which were already being addressed.   A portion of staff indicated they were considering leaving the service and the factors for this were not within the control of the organisation but were because of changes in the pension scheme.  She referred to the publication of HMIC’s Review of Call Handling at Bilston Glen and advised that Police Scotland would continue to work with HMIC on the recommendations contained within the report.  In referring to a gap in the Police Scotland budget she advised that locally contributions would be made towards the shortfall. She advised that from 1 April 2015 until the present 230 parking tickets had been issued with 152 warnings.  In certain circumstances leaflets were put on car windscreens advising parking was not permissible. 

         Chief Inspector A. McLean presented the Police Progress report covering the period April 2015 to September 2015 which had been circulated. The report detailed the figures for the six Priority areas to date and compared them to the figures for the same period in 2014/15.   In relation to Priority 1 – Protecting People figures showed a small increase in performance on the same time last year, and 2.5% better than target.   Priority 2 – showed a 3.4% increase in common assaults in the year to date compared to the same time period in 2014/15.  This equated to 3 more victims than at the same point last year.  In respect of reducing the number of antisocial behaviour incidents there had been a 9% reduction (258 incidents in the year to date compared to the same time period last year). With regards to increasing the reporting of hate crime – there had been a significant increase in the number of recorded victims of hate crime in the year to date and it was noted that this   was most likely  due to the hard work by police and partners to raise awareness of hate related issues and the awareness campaign entitled ‘No Place for Prejudice’, this was seen as a positive increase.  Priority 3 Tackling substance misuse – Police Scotland were undergoing a test phase on a new stop and search data base which went online on 1 June 2015, validation and testing of the data was ongoing and data collected would be detailed in future reports.   There had been a 26.5% decrease in the number of visits to licensed premises, which equated to 293 fewer visits. Priority 4 – Making our  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Mr Rooney advised that he was pleased to attend these joint meetings and he considered  that the team was an excellent one.    One of his key Scottish Police Authority (SPA) responsibilities was to liaise with members of local scrutiny committees – in his case with Scottish Borders, and North and South Lanarkshire which allowed a two way dialogue.  The new Chair of the SPA, Andrew Flanagan started at the beginning of September and one of his key priorities was to undertake a review of the Governance of Policing in Scotland. This review was announced on 3 September by the Cabinet Secretary, and a report on this was expected in March 2016.  The review would ensure that accountability arrangements for policing could be built on the lessons learned during the operation of the single force to date and those robust arrangements were in place for the future.   Recommendations should take account of the outcome of the local scrutiny summit which had taken place on 23 September.   All 32 local authorities were being actively invited to contribute and he explained how this would happen. Mr Flanagan had committed the SPA to taking forward a joint meeting with COSLA and local senior council officers, with support from Police Scotland. This meeting was taking place on 16 November and would consider findings from the summit; both Douglas Scott and Shona Smith would attend the meeting.  A follow up meeting would be offered, and an invitation issued to local scrutiny committee conveners to participate.  The Chair would report the findings of the review in March 2016.   The SPA had other pieces of engagement underway or in the pipeline including consulting on the SPA Gaelic Language Plan; and there would be more local engagement from the SPA in coming months on the new Strategic Plan for Policing.   He concluded by advising that the SPA were facing significant budgetary challenges and work  around the governance review was designed to ensure the SPA could build on the lessons learned during the operation of the single force to date, and ensure that the right and most robust arrangements were in place to meet these challenges.

DECISION

NOTED.

MEMBER

Councillor Nicol left the meeting during consideration of the above item.

Future meetings of the Board were scheduled to take place at 9.30am in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Newtown St Boswells on:-

Friday 12 February 2016; and

Friday 13 May 2016.

DECISION

NOTED.