Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor O’Connell, Elsie Sutherland, Alison Johnson, Anne Giles, Chuks Etuka and Andrew Brown.

Minutes of the meeting held on 25 July 2018 (copy attached)

It was noted that Chief Superintendent Boothe and Inspector O'Donnell were present at the previous meeting; however, this had not been recorded in the attendance.

RESOLVED – That the Board agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 25 July 2018, including the above amendment, as an accurate record.

The Chair and Vice-Chair will introduce themselves to the Safer Neighbourhood Board.

The Vice-Chair, Magdalene Adenaike, introduced herself and highlighted the following:

·       She was a local resident and worked in Croydon where she was the Chief Executive and Founder of Music Relief.

·       Music Relief worked with 11-19 year olds and provided music and art workshops to steer young people away from crime.

·       She was a Member of various bodies within the local community, including the Thornton Heath Action Team.

·       She and Councillor Audsley had recently organised a Youth Day in Thornton Heath in response to youth violence in the area.

·       She was a school governor.

The Chair, Donna Murray-Turner, introduced herself and highlighted the following:

·       She founded Another Night of Sisterhood (ANOS), was a Member of Community Stop and Search in the Borough a Member of APPG (All-Party Parliamentary Group).

·       She was the Chair of the Selhurst Ward Panel. As the Chair she had introduced coffee mornings within the ward for local residents and had Croydon Council, Unison, BME Forum and Housing Association attend to provide information about the available services.

·       She noted the importance of raising the profile of the Safer Neighbourhood Board and had sought advice from MOPAC and other Safer Neighbourhood Board Chairs regarding the revision of the Terms of Reference and membership of the Board.

·       She would like to explore the option of having the membership made up from Ward Panel Chairs, as this was successful in neighbouring Boroughs.

·       One of her main focuses was to engage grassroots organisations to the Board and to host events within the Borough for residents.  

The Chair will invite the Safer Neighbourhood Board Members present to introduce themselves.

The Chair requested that the Safer Neighbourhood Board Members present introduced themselves and explained their role within the community and what they would like to achieve as a Board going forward. The following points were raised regarding the future of the Safer Neighbourhood Board:

·       Ward Panels needed to be established in certain areas within the Borough and these would need guidance from the Safer Neighbourhood Board.

·       The Safer Neighbourhood Board needed to be promoted and engage more with local residents.

·       The Terms of Reference needed to be revised and the membership of the Board established.

·       It needed to be clearly stated who were voting and non-voting Members of the Board.

·       To ensure the membership of the Board was diverse.

·       An Independent Custody Panel representative used to attend the meetings and were a valuable Member.

·       To produce an application for residents who wish to be a Member of the Board.

·       To advertise becoming a Member of the Board as it was currently unclear for those who have an interest.

·       It was important to have a membership that was representative of the Borough and embraced diversity.

·       To invite external speakers to Board meetings and promote these as public meetings.

·       Meetings needed to be focussed on a particular area to ensure they are productive.

·       Hate crime needed to be focussed on, particularly social hate crime between neighbours, as it was felt that this was an issue within the Borough.

·       It would be positive to have young people attend the meetings.

·       The Safer Neighbourhood Board used to engage with grassroots organisations and have workshop style meetings and it would be positive to reintroduce these.

·       It was important to remember that the function of the Board was to keep the police to account and this should be focussed on when setting priorities.

·       To receive further information regarding the tri-borough agreement and encourage the Safer Neighbourhood Boards to work collaboratively and share information.

·       There needed to be more engagement with the young people in the Borough. There also needed to be positive role models for the young people.

·       The remit of the Board was to hold the police to account; however, there needed to be guidelines as to how this should be done.

·       It was important to ensure that the Board was relevant and reflected the concerns of all Croydon residents. Members needed to be mindful that residents would have different perceptions of what was important.

·       Encouraging guest speakers at workshop style meetings was positive.

·       One purpose of the Safer Neighbourhood Board was to establish policing priorities; however, these had not been discussed for a long time.

The Chair thanked the Safer Neighbourhood Board for their contributions and explained that she agreed with what had been said. She explained that the Board had not been scrutinising charities and organisations that have funding granted and it was important for the Board to do this going forward. She and the Vice-Chair would begin to meet with the organisations to see how the money was spent and this would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

The Chair noted that there was an organised weapon sweep on Wednesday 26 September 2018 and the Members of the Safer Neighbourhood Board were invited to participate.

Councillor Ali invited the Safer Neighbourhood Board Members to attend a Borough Command Unit update on Friday 14 September 2018 to received further information regarding the new structure and how it will work going forward.

The Democratic Services Officer agreed to distribute further information about both events to the Safer Neighbourhood Board Members and all those present.