Hello,
Hampshire Constabulary are the same as most organisations in that once everyone is aware of the names of meetings and procedures – it’s time to change them. This has happened with the meetings we use to identify the 3 Community Priorities. Logically, the meetings were called Community Priority Setting Meetings – does what it says on the tin really. Anyway – because these meetings were called different names throughout the county, there is a new name now – they are called PACT meetings (Partners and Community Together). We have had PACT meetings now for both Northam and St Marys. Unfortunately the St Marys PACT only attracted 4 people to the meeting last Tuesday, and only 2 of those were residents. Nevertheless it was a good meeting as those that did attend stated they thought they were very useful as we had managed to sort out the problems that had been brought to the meeting quite promptly, and if there were not the meetings, then those problems would not have been sorted out.
As such the St Marys PACT struggled with any new priorities, so we kept the same ones. These are:
Double parking in St Mary St – where we have issued 6 tickets now,
Youth Nuisance on Holyrood Estate – that has improved following good liaison between the youth leader, housing and ourselves with one particular address
Drug issues in Golden Grove – We have completed 2 positive drug warrants in Golden Grove in the last month. However, the very next morning after the PACT meeting we received emails from a resident complaining about cyclists using the pavement on the Itchen Bridge. Oh, if only these people had come to the PACT it would have been something to discuss…. and new people there as well. We advertise the meeting in the Echo, posters in all the blocks and I send out the invite to an email list of several hundred. Still, I guess that if there is a big problem that affects lots of people, then at least some of them would come along. Mind, I suppose it also shows that we are accessible to people if they have concerns, either at meetings, by phone, email or letter. If anyone has any ideas how I can get more people to come along – then please let me know.
PC Jeanette Denton organised her drug operation at some of the Halls of Residence on Monday. We were supported by the Halls managers and had a drugs dog that ran around the Halls with such vigour that only drugs dogs do. The dogs really enjoy their work and scamper around sniffing everything. The dog identified several rooms. Although no drugs were found it send a message to the students that drugs would not be tolerated in the Halls. We will be doing more operations in the future.
We had the Northam Patch Chat on Wednesday. This is a closed meeting attended by the police, Housing providers and community representatives. We discussed everything from the planned improvements called ‘Decent Neighbourhoods spend’ where it is planned to improve parking, play areas etc to anti social behaviour and dog mess. These are quarterly meetings and we also hold them in Kingsland, Golden Grove and Holyrood.
Well, that's it for now
Cheers
Dick
Monday, 17 May 2010
Wednesday, 5 May 2010
Bank Holiday Washout and Tenancy Agreement
Hello again,
Well, that was a typical Bank Holiday weekend – my BBQ, probably like many others, stayed in the shed, but at least I did not need to water the garden.
Coming back in after a long weekend means we have even more incidents to review when we get in. Overall it was not too bad for Northam and St Marys, in keeping with the recent trend. There was a bit of youth nuisance reported in Northam. A family that used to live in the area have been re-housed back here again and the same youths have started congregating around. We are working with the housing provider to try to sort out the problems. The housing providers are often key to sorting out anti social behaviour within our area. It is generally part of the tenancy agreement that the householder is responsible for the behaviour of those who live at the address and visitors. Quite often when we get complaints of anti-social behaviour other residents are fearful of putting pen to paper for fear of retribution. However, the housing providers can use anonymous statements. As you can imagine, this makes things much easier, and working with the housing providers we can provide information to top up theirs, often to go for repossession, or at least to serve a notice to the householder that we are looking at seeking possession - this is called a NOSP – Notice of Seeking Possession. We regularly have joint visits with the housing providers to try to sort out problems, and have had considerable success with this route.
On Tuesday we had another first. We have a new police volunteer. He is a young lad who has volunteered to help us run the Junior PCSO Scheme. He is hoping to gather experience to help him join the police and is going to help PCSO Mark Reynolds with the Lumpy Lane juniors. If this works out it will be great. It will add some more continuity to the leaders who run the juniors – and enables us to supply just one PCSO for the scheme rather that two. This is particularly useful on a Tuesday (when we have the Lumpy lane group) as we also run tag rugby on a Tuesday afternoon at St Marys School and that takes another two officers.
It was also the Northam Community Priority Setting Meeting on Tuesday. PC Mark Shepherd, who will be joining us in August as PC Phil Warwicks replacement (he left in September last year) was on duty, so he asked to pop along. It gives him an idea of what we do and also the opportunity to meet some of the people of Northam. Quite a good little introduction. At the meeting it was decided to close the priority regarding vehicles illegally turning right from Hilda Place into Northam Rd and was replaced by anti social being caused from a flat in Princes Court, and another flat - but not quite so bad, in Princes House. Funnily enough,considering I have already mentioned the tenancy agreements, this is another case where we can put pressure on the tenant via the tenancy agreement. It is of course the coucil that will take the lead as this is a council flat. We have already done several joint visits to the tenant so he is well aware of the concerns, and this now looks like the next step. That is one of the positive things about the Community Priority Setting Meetings - it is the community that gets to say what they want us to work on, the residents have their say. Anyway, in this case we are already aware and are working on it and although tenancy action can be a slow process we can now say we have the backing of other residents to take action. The next Northam meeting will be Tuesday 1 June as there is a Bank Holiday on the Monday. The next St Marys Community Priority Setting Meeting is next Tuesday.
Well, thats about it for another week, please let me have your thoughts and comments on the blog and anything you would like me to cover in the future
Cheers
Dick
Well, that was a typical Bank Holiday weekend – my BBQ, probably like many others, stayed in the shed, but at least I did not need to water the garden.
Coming back in after a long weekend means we have even more incidents to review when we get in. Overall it was not too bad for Northam and St Marys, in keeping with the recent trend. There was a bit of youth nuisance reported in Northam. A family that used to live in the area have been re-housed back here again and the same youths have started congregating around. We are working with the housing provider to try to sort out the problems. The housing providers are often key to sorting out anti social behaviour within our area. It is generally part of the tenancy agreement that the householder is responsible for the behaviour of those who live at the address and visitors. Quite often when we get complaints of anti-social behaviour other residents are fearful of putting pen to paper for fear of retribution. However, the housing providers can use anonymous statements. As you can imagine, this makes things much easier, and working with the housing providers we can provide information to top up theirs, often to go for repossession, or at least to serve a notice to the householder that we are looking at seeking possession - this is called a NOSP – Notice of Seeking Possession. We regularly have joint visits with the housing providers to try to sort out problems, and have had considerable success with this route.
On Tuesday we had another first. We have a new police volunteer. He is a young lad who has volunteered to help us run the Junior PCSO Scheme. He is hoping to gather experience to help him join the police and is going to help PCSO Mark Reynolds with the Lumpy Lane juniors. If this works out it will be great. It will add some more continuity to the leaders who run the juniors – and enables us to supply just one PCSO for the scheme rather that two. This is particularly useful on a Tuesday (when we have the Lumpy lane group) as we also run tag rugby on a Tuesday afternoon at St Marys School and that takes another two officers.
It was also the Northam Community Priority Setting Meeting on Tuesday. PC Mark Shepherd, who will be joining us in August as PC Phil Warwicks replacement (he left in September last year) was on duty, so he asked to pop along. It gives him an idea of what we do and also the opportunity to meet some of the people of Northam. Quite a good little introduction. At the meeting it was decided to close the priority regarding vehicles illegally turning right from Hilda Place into Northam Rd and was replaced by anti social being caused from a flat in Princes Court, and another flat - but not quite so bad, in Princes House. Funnily enough,considering I have already mentioned the tenancy agreements, this is another case where we can put pressure on the tenant via the tenancy agreement. It is of course the coucil that will take the lead as this is a council flat. We have already done several joint visits to the tenant so he is well aware of the concerns, and this now looks like the next step. That is one of the positive things about the Community Priority Setting Meetings - it is the community that gets to say what they want us to work on, the residents have their say. Anyway, in this case we are already aware and are working on it and although tenancy action can be a slow process we can now say we have the backing of other residents to take action. The next Northam meeting will be Tuesday 1 June as there is a Bank Holiday on the Monday. The next St Marys Community Priority Setting Meeting is next Tuesday.
Well, thats about it for another week, please let me have your thoughts and comments on the blog and anything you would like me to cover in the future
Cheers
Dick
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