Ward 8 –Tain and Easter Ross Ward Forum

Meeting held on Thursday 24 June 2010
in the Seaboard Memorial Hall, Balintore

Present:

Cllr Richard Durham (Chair)
Cllr Alasdair Rhind
Alice Smith, Balintore and Hilton Community Council
Marion Porteous, Inver Community Council
Richard Cross, Nigg and Shandwick Community Council
Janet Wilson, Tarbat Community Council
Robert James, Balintore Residents Group
Rose Hazell, KALE Action Group
Maureen Ross, Seaboard Memorial Hall
Chief Insp. Matthew Reiss, Northern Constabulary
Insp. Ramsay Aitken, Northern Constabulary
Insp. David Greenlees, Northern Constabulary
James Sanderson, HC Education & Enforcement Officer
Carol Elliot, HC Ward Manager Tain and Easter Ross
8 members of the public
1 member of the press

Apologies:

Cllr Alan Torrance
John Boocock, Kilmuir and Logie Easter Community Council
Fiona Robertson, Tain Initiative Group
Phil Green, Highlands & Islands Fire & Rescue Service
Ian Hargrave, HC Corporate Manager, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross

1. Welcome and Introductions
Cllr Durham welcomed everyone to the Forum.

2. Apologies for Absence
As listed above.

3. Ward Update and feedback from the previous Ward Forum.
The Notes from the previous Ward Forum are attached to the agenda.

Reminder – the Ward Community Project Development Scheme has had no take up locally since it’s launch almost 9 months ago. Up to £2,000 is available for groups to get help with developing projects. More information is available from Ward Manager.

Around 25 people representing groups across the Tain & Easter Ross and Cromarty Firth Wards attended an Energy Savings seminar for community buildings held here in May. These representatives found out how to save money through energy efficiency measures and heard about grant schemes available to them to help with improvements.

The Council is currently carrying out the following consultations across the Highlands:

Ending Friday 20th August – A review of Polling Districts and Polling Places.
The Council’s budget consultation ends in 6 days at the end of June. You can still feed your views in by writing to the Highland Council or via the Council’s web site.
Community Council’s and the public have until 30th June to give their opinion on the draft CC scheme documentation as part of stage 2 of the Highland Community Council Review.
Council tenants are to be consulted throughout July by post on the way it calculates rents for Council houses and on Service Charges. This consultation ends 30 July.
The Housing & Property Service are proposing to extend the Pressured Area Status designation so that tenancies starting on or after 30 Sept 2002 would have their right to buy suspended for 5 years. This proposal is to help tackle housing shortages. Views on this proposal are invited by 26 July.

Further information on all these consultations can be found on the Council’s website.

4. Littering, Fly tipping and Dog Fouling.
James Sanderson, Highland Council Education & Enforcement Officer.

The Education & Enforcement Officer’s job is to educate the public to reduce littering, dog fouling and fly tipping, and to give warnings to offenders. Officers can also issue fixed penalty fines. There are only 2 officers covering the Highland Council area.

Officers have recently been working at Fearn Primary School to educate children about littering. If children are made aware of the issue in primary school they are less likely to offend in secondary school.

One example of a littering problem - over 100,000 seabirds die every year because cigarette butts are discarded and end up in the sea!

Officers ran a Highland wide poster design and video competition last year. School pupils had to design a poster around the “Wise up or pay up” theme. The winning schools ahd their entries printed and circulated to every school and library in the Highlands.

The fine for letting your dog foul is £40, rising to £60 after four weeks if not paid. This can then rise to £500 if not paid in the following four weeks.

When officers receive a report of dog fouling they visit the area to measure the problem and place warning signs. If the problem continues, surveillance signs are erected. This is usually a good deterrent. If these warnings have been ignored, if caught, the culprits will be fined. Over one hundred people received fines last year. Fines cannot be given to: working dogs; dogs belonging to people with a disability who aren’t able to pick up after their dog; and where dog mess is too loose to pick up.

The fine for littering is £50. If this is not paid within two weeks it is referred to the Fiscal.

There is a maximum £40,000 fine for fly tipping. You can also have your vehicle seized. Lots of fly tipping is down to a few individuals. Signs have been placed at common sites to warning people of the penalties.

Communities can help by highlighting the issues and supporting campaigns.

Q – If you know of a regular dog fouling offender can you take photos to show to officers?
A – No. Only report the location and the time of day to officers.

Q – Can the same technique be used for gum?
A – Getting rid of gum is littering. Littering needs two corroborative witnesses that have to be prepared to go to court.

Q – Can we use gum boards as some other countries do?
A – These have been trialled in Scotland but they are costly. It is best to wrap gum and bin it. This is a good idea for the subject of a future campaign.

Q – What can be done about dog fouling on private land?
A – If the public have access to the land and they are witnessed and approached by an officer they can be fined if they don’t have a letter on them from the owner of the land saying they have permission to let their dog foul. Some land owners put up signs saying they don’t give permission for anyone to let their dog foul on their land. The land owner also needs to be made aware the officer is there.

Q – Is dog fouling below the high water mark an offence?
A – Yes. The tide is not an excuse. The public have access to beaches etc.

5. Community Safety and the work of the Police
Chief Insp. Matthew Reiss; Inspector Ramsay Aitken; and Insp. David Greenlees, Northern Constabulary.

“Community Safety” covers most of the work that the Police do. People’s perspectives on what Community safety is are very different. Examples were given of the recently collected views of teenagers.

Community Safety is what the public would like the Police to do. The bi-annual survey, conducted with other public sector partners, highlights speeding is again the number one concern of the public. The other concerns that appear at the top of the list for the public are: dangerous and drink driving; youth issues; and dog issues.

The Northern Constabulary is the second smallest force in Scotland (based on staffing numbers not area covered). Police numbers will drop in future due to budget cuts. The Police will do their utmost to try and give value for money, cut out bureaucracy and keep operational policing as a priority.

In the North area of the Northern Constabulary Area, crime has increased but so has the detection rate. There have been significant wildlife crimes across the force area recently.

There are varying views about the Police attending Community Council (CC) meetings. Each CC will have a Sergeant assigned to make sure someone attends if possible. As a minimum an electronic brief will be sent to Chairs.

The Police attend lots of summer events including shows, galas, and royal visits. The Police dog display team will be attending the Balintore Carnival.

The number of bogus workmen around tends to be higher in the summer. They target elderly people to pay for work in advance. These people are criminals. Please warn people to be on their guard and to let the Police and Trading Standards know if they are approached.

Inspector David Greenlees attended the Ward Forum. He was appointed last year. He covers the Milton area of the Ward which is in the Central Area of the Northern Constabulary area. Milton is covered by Invergordon Officers. He explained that Officers from Ross (Central area) will attend Easter Ross (North area) if help is needed and vice versa. He reported no major issues in the Milton area. Any issues raised at the Ward Forum relevant to the Central area will be fed back by the Police representatives attending the Forum.

The Police Officer’s job is a statutory role. The Police (Scotland) Act 1967 states: “…it shall be the duty of the constables of a police force - (a) to guard, patrol and watch so as - (i) to prevent the commission of offences; (ii) to preserve order; and (iii) to protect life and property.”

With budget cuts the Police need to look at what they do that is non statutory.

A huge amount of resources go in to prevention. By using intelligence the Police can deal with the problem before it becomes a bigger issue.

Examples were talked through of incidents in the Ward over a quite weekend (only 80 incidents) and discussion on which ones the Police should be involved in.

Historically, Northern Constabulary deals with things the Police don’t have to do. What they will be able to respond to has to be considered as part of the wider area.

Staffing at Tain Police Station is at its full compliment. The Ward is a very safe area to live in. Over 2 months there were 1467 calls to the Police in the area. Broken down this is approx 25 per officer per week.

Policing is only part of the Criminal Justice System.

Q – Why do the Police tell people they can’t do anything?
A – All information received helps form a picture. Information is entered in to a Scotland wide system. This information is reviewed daily. The Police may not be able to act on it at that time as they may need to go through a process to get warrants for searches etc. Information given may be malicious or credible. Overt visits may be carried out to warn people about their behaviour. Possibly need to look at what response if given to public so it is more positive.

Q – Disabled parking spaces, is it unlawful of immoral to misuse?
A – Immoral, but traffic wardens will fine if misused in an enforceable area.

Q – In the current economic climate of rising unemployment is there a rise in crime?
A – In the force area crime is falling. So far in the recession if hasn’t gone up.

Comment – Feel contact with the Police at Ward Forums is adequate. Police should be able to make a judgement about attending CCs. If they are not there they will have a good reason.

Response – Those CCs in the North area have received an invitation to a Police Planning day in August. Officers are trying to have the Camera Partnership van deployed in villages but there are strict rules about how it can be used.

Q – Will the regular visit to Seaboard by the Crime Prevention Officer be cut?
A – The results of these sessions have been highly positive and other areas are looking at replicating.

6. Date, location and topic of next Ward Forum

Wednesday 25th August 2010 7pm for 7.30pm. General Purpose Hall, Tain Royal Academy Community Complex.

Theme: Consultation on Community Care. A briefing sheet on the consulation and its main questions has been given out to help you gather community opinion before then.

7. Public Question and Answer session.

Comment – it is important to know who is living beside you to protect children.

Response – Offenders are subject to strict controls and the Police monitor them. Serious consideration is given to where offenders are housed and although the community can’t be told, the Police know.

Q - What level of monitoring is done?
A – There are various levels of monitoring such as 24/7 monitoring, tagging, visits.

Comment – The closing date for bids for the Nigg Yard is soon. If DSM is successful they are planning a presentation late July to the community.

ACTION 1: If meeting is going ahead, Chair of Nigg Community Council to pass information about the presentation to Ward Manager to distribute to Ward Forum members.

8. Thanks for attending.
Cllr Durham thanked Balintore and Hilton CC for organising the refreshments.

We would remind members of the public they can see the notes from this Ward Forum and information about future Ward Forums on the Highland Council’s Web site.