When this Conservative-led government was formed last year, it came in with an agenda to deeply cut the public sector. The argument at the time was that the national debt was too big, and harsh austerity measures were needed to bring the debt under control. So, local authorities, together with other public sector bodies have experienced unprecedented cuts. In Exeter, around 40% of jobs are reliant on public sector money, so we will be harder hit than most. Devon & Cornwall Police have to lose 746 officers - the 5th highest cut in the country. (http://www.campaignengineroom.org.uk/police-map)
Devon County Council are proposing to cut a further £30million of services in 2012-13 on top of the £26million+ that was cut in this financial year. Exeter City Council has faced cuts of 24% over 2 years.
Nationally, there is increasing concern among economists, businesses and politicians that these nationally-imposed cuts are simply not working. The national debt has not come down, growth remains stagnant, and unemployment continues to rise to levels not seen since - well, the last time the Tories were in. Even yesterday's announcement that growth had risen to 0.5% was not good news - it needed to be at least 1.3% if George Osborne was to be on track to meet his own deficit reduction target for the year.
So locally Exeter City Council and Devon County Council have no choice but to continue to cut vital public services next year because of national Tory ideology and a Lib Dem unwillingness (or impotence) to stand up to their Tory bosses.
Both councils however, are asking local residents to talk to them about the services that matter most. It often feels like Hobson's Choice: Do we want more housing for a growing number of homeless people, or more care for a growing elderly population? Do we slash services for disabled people, or child protection services? Do we collect rubbish, or fix pavements and roads? No one is pretending it's easy, but you have a chance to have your say about the services that matter most to YOU.
Details of Exeter City Council's consultation can be found at http://www.exeter.gov.uk/index.aspx?articleid=13880
Devon County Council's consultation page is at: http://www.toughchoices.co.uk/
I remember my first week of being a councillor. I received a phone call at 9pm from a local resident who lived near a shopping precinct in my ward. "There are young people by the shops," she said. "Skateboarding."
"Right," I said, knowing that all the shops would be closed and shuttered by now. "Are they damaging anything?"
"No. They're skateboarding."
"Are they drinking? Are there cars in the car park?"
"No. But there's about 8 of them. I had to walk my dog past them."
"Were they abusive? Threatening?"
"No... but it's dark..."
And so it went on. For this resident, a group of young people out together could seem threatening, but the reality was they were in a safe, well-lit spot, and they were not doing anything wrong. Whenever we look at these sort of issues, we have to balance the perception of what is happening with the reality; and often also have to balance the rights and freedoms of one section of the community with another.
Anti-social behaviour is not pleasant. I have had to work many, many times with families whose quality of life, and sadly even health, has been affected by persistent and deeply unpleasant behaviour from a tenacious minority. Whenever this behaviour occurs, the best outcomes always arise from prompt action and intervention.
Earlier this summer, police received a number of complaints about persistent anti-social behaviour from a small, but significant, number of young people in Pinhoe. On the 1st August, a Section 30 Dispersal Order was introduced, giving the police powers to break up groups that might be behaving anti-socially, and to require them to leave a specific area. Failure to comply with that order is a criminal offence.
Today I attended a meeting at the City Council along with Pinhoe's Labour city councillor, Moira Macdonald to review the impact of the Section 30 order, and to discuss how to tackle any future occurances of the anti-social behaviour that had warranted the dispersal order in the first place. It was a well-attended meeting, with representatives of the police, the council's community safety team, the youth service, schools, and housing associations represented.
What was good to see was that the people around the table understood that often a very small number of people are responsible for a disproportionate amount of anti-social behaviour. Therefore any action that is used must try to avoid being a "hammer to crack a nut." The meeting also recognised that we cannot focus purely on enforcement, without offering (in this case) young people positive reasons to change their behaviour.
We will not be able to rely on Section 30 orders much longer as next year the present coalition government is likely to scrap the anti-social powers that Labour introduced. However, the meeting has agreed that what is needed is a multi-agency approach to engaging with young people, offering them active roles within the community - not a marginalised role where they feel they have no stake. From a position of relationship and mutual respect we need to talk and listen - reinforcing appropriate behaviour, but also doing all we can to support their own ideas. Then, for those that still wish to disrupt the community life of other young people and residents, they can expect a full and robust response from the police and authorities.
I welcome the success the Section 30 order had this summer, but there will now be a clear multi-agency action plan drawn up to pull together schools, youth services including the Vibe club, council services and the police to ensure that Pinhoe is a place where all residents - from the oldest to the youngest - feel safe, valued and respected, and - crucially - part of one community together.
Moira and I, as ever, will be interested in your views and ideas.
