Agenda and minutes

Budget Consultation, Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel - Friday 30 October 2015 10.00 am, NEW

Venue: Council House (Next to the Civic Centre), Plymouth

Contact: Katey Johns  Email: katey.johns@plymouth.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

28.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members will be asked to make any declaration of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest made by members in regard to items under discussion at this meeting.

29.

THE ESTATES STRATEGY FOR DEVON AND CORNWALL POLICE pdf icon PDF 1 MB

The Police and Crime Commissioner will present a report in respect of his plans for Estates Management over the next five years.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Police and Crime Commissioner’s Chief Executive introduced the Estates Strategy 2015-21 for Devon and Cornwall Police.  The Estates Strategy set out how the organisations’ building portfolio would support delivery of the Police and Crime Plan and explained how the estate would assist the Force in achieving its mission to detect and prevent harm; protect the vulnerable and reduce crime.

 

The panel also received a presentation which was introduced by the PCC’s Treasurer.

 

Members were advised that –

 

(a)

 

the Police and Crime Commissioner’s estate supported the operation of some 5,800 officers and staff across 110,000m2 and was large and expensive to maintain;

(b)

 

from November responsibility for direct management of property acquisitions and disposals would transfer from the Police to the Police and Crime Commissioner in order to seek greater property values and so that the process could be fast-tracked;

 

(c)

 

the current value of the estate of 131 buildings over 103 sites was estimated at £129m;

 

(d)

 

the average age of buildings was 45 years which, between them, had a maintenance backlog costing in the order of £15m;

 

(e)

 

out of the 43 Police Forces in the country, Devon and Cornwall was 8th in terms of operational cost per m2, however, there was a lot of surplus space which could be released/reduced to minimise costs;

 

(f)

 

since the last Comprehensive Spending Review work had been ongoing to reduce the number of surplus buildings and replace with modern, fit-for-purpose facilities.  As at April 2015, savings achieved in running costs totalled £640k per annum;

 

(g)

 

in recent years a number of co-location arrangements had been progressed and work was continuing with partners to identify additional sites.

 

In response to questions raised, Members heard further that –

 

(h)

 

provided a property or site met all the necessary criteria resources would be made available to accelerate its progression in order to achieve the necessary savings;

 

(i)

 

decisions on which buildings were identified for disposal were based on their size, condition and location.  To date 30 buildings had been identified;

 

(j)

 

discussions had taken place with commercial property experts and one or two had expressed a keen interest in working with the OPCC in taking the matter forward.  In addition, talks had taken place with the public sector, particularly Cornwall Council, and opportunities there were also being explored.

 

The panel noted the report.

30.

THE POLICE AND CRIME COMMISSIONER'S PROPOSALS FOR CONSULTING THE PUBLIC IN RESPECT OF A POTENTIAL INCREASE IN THE PRECEPT pdf icon PDF 256 KB

The Police and Crime Commissioner will present to the Panel the proposed consultative process with regard to a potential increase in the precept.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair advised that, contrary to the published agenda, there would be one discussion on this item under Part 1 only.  The Police and Crime Commissioner then went on to report that there would be a presentation on the item which would be given in three parts as follows –

 

·        brief introduction – Police and Crime Commissioner

·        impact of savings on policing – Chief Constable

·        proposals for public consultation on potential precept increase – Police and Crime Commissioner and OPCC Chief Constable

 

Members were advised that –

 

(a)

 

Devon and Cornwall Police had led the way in challenging the Government’s funding formula and would continue to do so;

 

(b)

 

the implications of the proposed savings were dire and if they were presented in risk register format they would be displayed as red;

 

(c)

 

the National Audit Office was of the opinion that the Government had not fully understood the impact of the savings being sought;

 

(d)

 

the regions’ MPs had been slow to respond to the concerns raised;

 

(e)

 

crime was changing and traditional methods of policing would have to change in order to achieve the savings required.   Low, medium and high risk crime and associated service provision would have to be categorised into what must be done, should be done and could be done;

 

(f)

 

no decision had been made in regard to holding a referendum.  It was merely the Commissioner’s intention to gauge public appetite for one and whether or not there would be any support for an increase to the precept;

 

(g)

 

if an excessive increase was proposed then two separate budgets would need to be presented to the panel at the precept meeting on 5 February 2016.

 

In response to questions raised, Members heard further that –

 

(h)

 

the format for the ballot question was prescribed by statute;

 

(i)

 

copies of the presentation slides would be circulated to the panel after the meeting;

 

(j)

 

by stopping recruitment, and through the process of natural retirement, a number of posts could be reduced without the need for redundancies;

 

(k)

 

sharing the Force’s dog services with HMRC and exploring crowd funding opportunities were already under consideration;

 

(l)

 

in addition to use of a statistics agency to undertake a poll, the consultation would also be circulated to local authority leaders, senior members of society and publicised using social media;

 

(m)

 

the OPCC was aware that the south west had a number of areas of deprivation and this had been taken into consideration in its submission.  Unfortunately, the Government used deprivation measures which favoured urban areas and not rural areas such as Devon and Cornwall;

 

(n)

 

the funding formula calculation hadn’t taken the effects of Tourism on the area into account either;

 

(o)

 

any increase to the precept would be a percentage increase of the police’s share of the Council Tax (10%) not a percentage increase of the Council Tax as a whole.

 

Members welcomed the Commissioner’s engagement on his consultation proposals and made the following suggestions –

 

·        that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

31.

FUTURE MEETING DATE/S

The following are the scheduled meeting dates for the Panel –

 

·         11 December 2015

·         5 February 2016 (Precept)

·         19 February 2016 (if Precept veto’d)

·         15 April 2016

 

All meetings commence at 10.30 am.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Future meeting dates were confirmed as –

 

·         11 December 2015

·         5 February 2016 (Precept)

·         19 February 2016 (if Precept Veto’d)

·         15 April 2016

32.

EXEMPT BUSINESS

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no items of exempt business.