Old Colwyn East Residents Association

Minute of a talk on 10th February 2010 by Superintendent Richard Brough ~ Partnerships Officer

Superintendent Richard Brough introduced himself to the meeting. He was previously the Operational Superintendent for the past two and a half years and now is the Partnership Superintendent covering the Counties of Conwy and Denbighshire, responsible for delivering

Neighbourhood Policing ~ CBMs PCSOs, School Liaison Officers, Community Safety and also Licensing.

He said that he was pleased to concur with what CBM Mike Williams had previously said and some of the crime reductions that have been seen in Old Colwyn have been seen throughout the County, this was pleasing and it had been a good year. The crimes that annoy people and impact on their lives the most ~ criminal damage and antisocial behaviour are down fairly significantly in East Conwy.

He continued to say that what really matters is whether people have noticed it on the ground because it is easy to look at statistics and see the downward trend. He hoped that people have found that things are better; there is quite a lot of work still to do as Mike had previously said.

Licensing is one of the big issues being concentrated on for the reason that the areas that are causing the police much concern across both Counties and Force-wide are underage drinking and alcohol related antisocial behaviour and violence.

The Local Authority and the Police have put a lot of resources into the Joint Licensing Team. Before Christmas there were a series of controlled test purchases using underage persons in both Counties. The Conwy ones were finished two weeks ago. Each establishment was visited three times. Those that fail twice are sent to review with the Licensing Committee; those that fail three times face a closure order. One such premises is the Ship Hotel in Old Colwyn. There is a 28 day negotiation period where they can try to get the licence back or influence the Licensing Committee, so they don’t lose their licence by making reasonable adjustments.

Nationally there are a lot more police powers for licensing now, the police are being heavy handed at present because they need to be, as there is a problem especially in Rhyl where alcohol related violence is a significant problem. The police are using all their powers to work with the Clubs and Pubs; hopefully, he added, that will influence behaviour. It is not the intention to close pubs down, it is difficult for Licensees to make a living and that is appreciated but they do need to behave responsibly.

Looking to the future, there is concern about all the cuts in the public sector; North Wales Police is no exception; they will have to find £16 million of cuts over the next three years. There is a project team looking at that and at every aspect of Police business, how the structure works, who is paid what, the pay rates for different departments and sections – whether they are the same as the National average. The promising thing about the review is that the Chief’s priorities for the review are Response Policing and Neighbourhood Policing; they will be the very last things that get cut.

There are many back office functions, some are “nice to do” and some will probably cease, concentrating on what is necessary to do; making people feel safe and make sure we have the resources there at the front line when people phone 999 to ask for help. That is the focus of the review, times will get harder but the back office will bear the brunt of that.

With that Superintendent Brough asked for questions.

The Chair commented that is was good to see that the back office will take the brunt of the cuts and it will not be the thin blue line as it was last time, it is nice to hear that the new Chief Constable has his focus on the public.

The Superintendent said that his view is that over the years the police have drifted away from being a “front line first” organisation and the back office has slowly got bigger and now the new Chief has come in and has ordered a structure review and there are a lot of jobs that have been created in the back office that we don’t need. They are nice to have and are useful but we just do not need them.

The Chair continued the other thing is that we have noticed that there is a thin blue line, we have spoken about it a lot, we used to have two CBMs in Old Colwyn, now we have one and Mike has a much bigger area than he had before. What is good is that if we talk to our police officers, they do listen and they do respond.

Superintendent Brough replied that it is nice to hear comments like that, there will not be any more police officers or CBMs but there is still more that can be done to use existing resources more effectively. That too will be part of the review.

Councillor Cossey said that over the years the test purchases have been done in pubs and off-licences and the Ship is the first one that has failed on all three occasions. Our big problem is still youngsters, underage who still manage to get hold of alcohol apparently through older persons buying it for them. He asked if there is anything that can be done about the issue, to perhaps target it this summer.

Superintendent Brough replied that it makes it more difficult for police as it is much harder to detect. More needs to be done by interacting with the children themselves. Most will talk to the police. The Rhos Bistro was closed down recently and it was youngsters who said “everyone knows that they serve underage drinkers”. He added that more will be done to tackle the issue, it is a big priority. The police are of the view that it holds the answer to antisocial behaviour and alcohol fuelled violent crime.

The chair thanked Superintendent Brough and CBM Mike Williams for their reports. The officers left the meeting at that point.