Agenda item

            The Committee considered the following report:

 

“1.0      Purpose of Report or Summary of Main Issues

 

1.1       Further to previous agreements at People and Communities Committee, this report provides the agreed update on anti-social behaviour in parks and open spaces covering the April – July 2018 period.

 

1.2       At previous meetings, Members further agreed that initial work would be focussed on Falls Park/City Cemetery, Orangefield Park/Avoniel Park, Marrowbone, Dunville and Ballysillan.

 

2.0       Recommendation

 

2.1       The Committee is asked to:

 

            note the progress against these actions and to receive a further progress report in November, 2018.

 

3.0       Main Report

 

            Key Issues

 

            Current Context

 

3.1       Reported Anti-Social Behaviour To Council

 

            Ongoing analysis of reports from members of the public, along with anti-social behaviour witnessed by Council Officers has identified the following parks/open spaces as having issues with persistent anti-social behaviour. 

 

3.2       Please note figures provided below are for the period April – July, 2018. 

 

Park/Open Space	Area	Reported Anti-Social Behaviour Incidents
Woodvale	West	11
Ormeau	South	10
Jubilee Gardens	North	10
Girdwood	North	8
Botanic	South	8

 

3.3       Please also note that the list below only represents the parks/open spaces with the highest numbers of reports of anti-social behaviour.  Reports of anti-social behaviour are received for other parks/open spaces across the city but at a much lower level.

 

            Repairs at Parks/Open Spaces

 

3.4       As indicated above, anti-social behaviour is often under-reported.  Officers therefore regularly review requisitions for repairs at parks/open spaces due to vandalism, criminal damage or arson. 

 

3.5       There has been a marked reduction in serious vandalism, criminal damage or arson at all parks and open spaces across the city with only minor damage presenting.

 

            Member Feedback

 

3.6       Elected Members engage regularly with Officers articulating concerns about anti-social behaviour in parks/open spaces.  Officers have reviewed their Elected Members contact on this issue and the following parks/open spaces present most frequently as of concern:

 

Park/Open Space	Area
Falls Park/City Cemetery	West
Marrowbone	North
Orangefield/Avoniel	East

 

            Animation/Programming

 

3.7       Progress to Date

 

·        Community Youth Outreach Teams have been proactive around a number of parks and open spaces, in particular Falls Park, Marrowbone and Orangefield/Avoniel.

·        A range of positive programming and animation events continue to take place in priority parks and open spaces particularly at the weekends.  Activities include community fun days, sports tournaments, health and wellbeing events and added value is being achieved by aligning existing Council services in support of this work.

·        Outreach Teams continue to deliver summer activities to encourage positive use

 

3.8       Next Steps

 

·        Continued delivery of the Marrowbone Park programming/animation plan

·        Ballysillan Park programming/animation plan to be finalised with stakeholders

·        Alignment of Urban Villages Projects around Ballysillan Park and Marrowbone Park to maximise available funding to address anti-social behaviour in parks and open spaces and support the associated Urban Villages consultation in the areas

·        Ongoing delivery of Policing and Community Safety Partnership funded diversionary and developmental activities for young people across the city.

 

            Operational Co-ordination

 

3.9       Progress to Date

 

·        Parks Management Group has been established for Marrowbone and Ballysillan including Elected Members, community and youth providers and other statutory agencies;

·        Improved youth provider co-ordination across the city appears to be making a positive impact on the levels of anti-social behaviour in parks and open spaces in recent months;

·        Weekly operational tasking meetings take place between Council, Police and other statutory agencies as needed to review operational priorities and plan for the week ahead;

·        PSNI committed additional resources during the summer period in support of this issue; and

·        Mobile CCTV is proactive around priority Council owned parks and open spaces

 

 

3.10      Next Steps

 

·        Further development of parks management groups for priority parks and open spaces;

·        Finalise report on opportunities for improved youth provider co-ordination across the city; and

·        Further development of process to maximise internal and external resources/co-operation

 

            Awareness Raising

 

3.11      Progress to Date

 

·        PSNI continue to proactively use their social media channels to deter anti-social behaviour around parks and open spaces

·        The scoping with partners for the Inter-Agency Community Safety Schools Programme has been completed and the programme is currently being finalised

 

3.12      Next Steps

 

·        Ongoing development of partnerships with post primary schools  across Belfast to take place, seeking co-operation around communication with parents and pupils regarding wider community impacts and risks of anti-social behaviour

·        Engagement to take place with organisations who advocate and lobby for young people in the development of messaging to maximise impact e.g. Children’s Commissioner

·        Delivery of the Inter-Agency Community Safety Schools Programme during academic year

·        Detailed scoping of how to proactively encourage parental responsibility around this issue.

 

            Maximising Strategic Opportunities

 

3.13      Officers continue to work to ensure alignment and connectivity between other strategic programmes of work to maximise the potential to positively impact on the ongoing challenges in parks and open spaces:

 

·        PEACE IV Shared Spaces Project and Wider PEACE IV Programme – Officers continue to ensure the capital/programming investment from PEACE IV Programme are aligned to ongoing work aimed at improving safety in parks and open spaces.  Contracts for a range of PEACE IV work are in the process of being procured and awarded.

·        Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) – Council was recently successful in securing £40,000 of funding from the Department for Economy to facilitate innovation around how to better encourage positive use and deter negative use of parks/open spaces.  Officers are currently working with partners to refine the ‘challenge’ to be launched mid October 2018. 

·        Fresh Start – Tackling Paramilitarism Action Plan – Officers continue to work with Executive Office Officials and individual lead departments/organisations in maximising the benefit of the following work streams within the action plan for communities in Belfast

 

            Community Safety Strategic Tasking Work

 

3.14      Due to ongoing Elected Member and community concern about anti-social behaviour across the city and limited resource available to address this, the Director of CNS identified the need to develop a strategic evidence led tasking approach across agencies.  The objectives are primarily to maximise the available resource, allocate resources where needed most and maximise the outcomes for safer communities.  The work has been scoped to include three stages of tasking as detailed below:

 

3.15      Stage 1: Reactive tasking – gather the one dimensional current statistical picture and seek to build a two dimensional dashboard which houses anecdotal/ practitioner information and conduct defined testing of the reporting/ recording mechanisms at a front line level.

 

3.16      Stage 2: Reflective tasking  - core implementation of the business practice being installed for stage 1 and use of more sophisticated analytics to identify patterns, correlations, trends and gaps which would inform proactive and intelligent operational tasking and decision making.

 

3.17      Stage 3: Resilient tasking – further development of statistical picture and practitioner/anecdotal information to provide insight for strategic and longer term approach to strategic tasking and decision making, ultimately with the aim of preventing rather than managing community safety issues.

 

 

3.18      Progress to Date

 

            The work is ongoing but progress to date is summarise for Members consideration:

 

·        The data dashboard has been developed using a pre-existing Council system and refreshes automatically every 24 hours to all other Council systems.  The dashboard also absorbs monthly PSNI & NI Housing Executive statistics.

·        Opportunities for joint working with the Department of Justice are being progressed

·        Data Protection implications have been considered and a Privacy Impact Assessment conducted.  No personal data is being processed, but this will be continuously reviewed

·        Staff training is being provided to ensure existing service delivery benefits from the learning

·        Initial learning from this work has identified opportunities to use this approach in supporting service delivery in other business areas and this will be further examined in the coming months.

 

3.19      Next Steps

 

            Initial progress has been encouraging, but further work is required to embed this approach across agencies and in particular the importance of being able to gather anecdotal/practitioner insight both from within the statutory sector, but also from within communities.  Key next steps are:

 

·        Secure the commitment of other statutory agencies to provide relevant data into the system.

·        Develop the anecdotal/practitioner insight element of the data dashboard, particularly given high levels of under-reporting of community safety issues in parts of the city.

·        Continue to input learning to the Strategic Hub and Information Management CNS Change Project for wider corporate and departmental benefit.

 

            Financial and Resource Implications

 

3.20      Staff Resources

 

            The above approach continues to support the values and principles of the City and Neighbourhood Services and wider Corporate Change Programme.

 

            Financial Resources

 

            All of the above work continues to be accommodated from within existing Council and (D)PCSP revenue budgets.  The work is intended to maximise existing resources, reduce duplication and facilitate joined up decision making and resource allocation in the identified parks/open spaces.

 

            Equality or Good Relations Implications/Rural Needs Assessment

 

3.21      There are no implications at present, however, this will monitored on an ongoing basis.”

 

            The Committee noted the progress report and that a further report would be submitted at the November meeting of Committee.