Agenda item

The Committee considered the undernoted report.

“1.    Relevant Background Information

The following report provides outline detail of the actions and activities over the St. Patrick’s weekend and bank holiday in relation to keeping our Parks and Leisure spaces safe and free of anti-social behaviour.  In the last number of years the council has been working closely with its partners to coordinate resources to effectively tackle any antisocial behaviour occurring during St. Patrick’s Day across the city.  This year, as before, preparatory meetings were held with the PSNI, NIFRS, Ambulance Service, Queen’s University and Ulster University and a comprehensive operations plan was drawn up to support effective communications during the St. Patrick’s Day bank holiday weekend.

2.      Key Issues

         The aims of the St. Patrick’s Day operation were to:

·         Communicate with local communities, elected representatives and  revellers about the St. Patrick’s celebration 2013 operation;

·         Provide a safe environment for residents, communities and revellers to enjoy and partake in St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations across the city;

·         Tackle crime, on-street drinking and antisocial behaviour;

·         Enforce breaches of local bye laws and other legislation;

·         Improve the public image of Belfast as a safe city to socialise in.

The principal areas given attention included the Holylands, the City Centre (during the St. Patricks Day parade and concert) and the parks throughout the city over the long weekend.  The Parks and Leisure Department ensured officers were contributing to the development of a city wide plan for the St. Patrick’s Day operation. The coordinated operations in Parks began at 7:30am on 16 March and ended at 7:30pm on 18 March 2013.

Parks operations were based at the City Hall Emergency control room on St. Patrick’s Day from 7:00am and continued until 7:30pm. Hourly updates on the situation in parks were gathered and collated by two City Parks Managers. These updates were shared amongst the agencies and informed decisions on where to deploy resources were taken using this information.

The mobile CCTV van was deployed throughout parks across the city on 17 March and was very effective in identifying and quantifying antisocial behaviour hotspots within park areas. Evidence collated from previous years indicated where groups would consume alcohol in parks and leisure facilities across Belfast. There were a total of 17 incidents involving youths arriving at parks with alcohol and they were not given any opportunity to settle or continue drinking. The early coordinated intervention of council officers was extremely effective in keeping parks free from drinkers gathering.  Following reports from the public or Councillors, the mobile CCTV van was deployed to a number of parks to broadcast live images back to the Emergency control room in the City Hall. This resource provided an extremely versatile asset, as council officers and PSNI could make decisions on deploying a response using ‘real time’ images to assess and respond to any reports of antisocial behaviour.  As a result there were a number of successful responses which utilised the coordinated resources of Park Wardens, Community Safety Wardens, Get Home Safe Officers and the PSNI to tackle drinking in Parks across the city. The Mobile CCTV van was also deployed in parks during the bank holiday on 19 March 2013.

3.      Resource Implications

Finance: The mobile CCTV was supplied under a contract sourced by the Community Safety unit and jointly resourced by the Parks and Leisure Department’s safer Neighbourhoods Antisocial behaviour programme budget.

4.      Recommendations

         The Committee is asked to note the contents of this report.”

            The Committee noted the contents of the report and, at the request of a Member, it was agreed that the Director would convene a meeting involving the Chairman of the Committee, the Chairman of the West Belfast District Policing and Community Safety Partnership, together with a range of statutory bodies and agencies, community and voluntary groups, to discuss the problem of anti-social activity in the Greater West Belfast area and specifically issues relating to the Woodlands Playing Fields, with a view to identifying diversionary activities which could be put in place to address the issue.