Police Plan for Broughty Ferry 2013 Published

At the meeting of the Broughty Ferry Local Community Planning Partnership on Thursday evening, the Committee were briefed about the production, by Dundee based Police Scotland officers, of the Police Plan for Broughty Ferry 2013. 

This is I think probably the first time that there has been a specific Police Plan published for The Ferry; we have previously been covered by plans for Dundee.

Constituents should however be aware that our local Police, formerly Tayside Police and now Police Scotland have been committed partners in Community Planning and attend and report in writing to each quarterly meeting of The Ferry Local Community Planning Partnership.

When constituents have had a chance to read this, I would be interested in hearing your observations.

Read/download Police Scotland: The Ferry Multi Member Ward Plan 2013

Final Meeting of Tayside Police After Thirty Eight Years Service

Click on image to enlarge

On Monday morning, I attended the last meeting of Tayside Police Board. 

Members of the Board considered a number of reports which detailed the transition from eight regional Police Forces to the new Single Police Force for Scotland that will come into effect on Monday 1st April 2013. While it was clear that the changeover has taken a great deal of planning, other reports dealt with day to day policing which had been effectively continuing in parallel with the preparation for the changeover next week.


For example, the report, TAYSIDE POLICE PERFORMANCE POSITION AT JANUARY 2013, revealed that:

"The force achieved 3 out of 4 of crime reduction targets by January:

• A reduction in violent crime of 22.6% (101 crimes)
• Despite an increase in robbery of 2.0% (2 crimes)
• A reduction in vandalism of 9.8% (342 crimes)

Domestic housebreaking failed to achieve target


Domestic Housebreaking - saw a 15.2% increase from 541 to 623 crimes at the end of January. The end of year target is 700 ..... ."

During their 38 years of operation as a regional police force, I think Tayside Police have effectively protected the combined communities of Dundee, Angus and Perth and Kinross.

At the end of the morning senior officers and staff and elected members braved the cold wind for a procession down the High Street and ceremony in Tay Street for not only Tayside Police but also Tayside Fire and Rescue, which is also to become a single national service at the same time.

Tayside Police Keen to Gather Views on its Draft Interim Local Policing Plans for 2013-2014

Tayside Police has today launched a consultation on its draft interim Local Policing Plans for 2013-2014.

The draft interim Local Policing Plans set out the local policing priorities and objectives for the three Local Authority areas across Tayside including Dundee.  These Plans represent a critical part of the local delivery process for the new national Police Service Of Scotland that takes over responsibility for policing from the current  eight police forces (including Tayside Police) on 1st April 2013.  These new local policing plans demonstrate a commitment to local policing within the national planning framework which enables the police to respond effectively to the concerns of local communities as well as meet and tackle nationwide demands.

As part of this consultation, Tayside Police are keen to engage with the public, partners and staff in order to gather their views on the draft Policing Plans, prior to finalisation of the Plans in March this year.  This engagement should help to ensure that what they are proposing will continue to provide communities with a local police service that meets their needs and deals with the issues that are important to them.

Tayside Police, request that individuals and community groups consider the Plan relevant to their Local Authority area and give them your views on our proposals by completing the short questionnaire.  Further details on this consultation and how you can participate are available by clicking on the link below. 

http://www.tayside.police.uk/About-Us/Force-Publications/policing-plan-consultation.htm

Participation in this exercise, however, is entirely optional and you should feel no obligation to take part.  They reassure us that data from this survey is strictly confidential and will only be used for the purposes described above.  You can also be assured that your details will not be passed to any other agency.

Your views are important and will help us shape the future direction of policing in the Tayside area.  If you have any queries regarding this consultation or require further information please contact the Performance and Planning Unit on  (01382) 596712 or 596711. 

Read/Download the DRAFT Dundee Local Policing Plan 2013-2014

Condemnation of Repeated Damage to Bus Shelter on Balgillo Road

I was appalled to be informed that that another glass panel had been smashed on the Bus Shelter on Balgillo Road near the junction with Elcho Drive on Wednesday. Infuriatingly, this was only the day after a contractor had replaced four panels at the same Bus Shelter. Since August this makes three cases of broken glass panels at this bus shelter. 

I am sure residents will join me in condemning this series of deliberate acts of criminal damage which is wasting public money. It is also diverting council cash from funding transport improvements such as the demand for a bus shelter further up Balgillo Road at the stop close to the junction with Marlee Road.

I appeal to residents to keep an eye out for and to report any suspicious behaviour to the Police. I think the residents who live on the north side of Elie Avenue are probably in the best position to keep a watchful eye out as their homes face the Balgillo Road and this bus shelter; so let's have some neighbourhood watch!

School Parking and Pupil Safety Working Group visit Forthill Primary School

On Thursday afternoon I visited Forthill Primary School with members of the School Parking and Pupil Safety Working Group. This included officers from Tayside Police, council staff from Transportation, Education and Travel Active and Councillors like me.  

For about 25 minutes there was a lot of comings and goings including several hundred vehicle movements. There was also a significant number of parents and carers on foot rather than driving right up to the door in their cars. The potentially most dangerous manoeuvres I observed involved cars reversing close to where children were also crossing the school road.

While the issues associated with dropping off and collecting children at Forthill Primary School are well known to me, it was important that all the other members of  this group observe the potential dangers to children from the traffic congestion in the vicinity of the school at the end of the school day. It was I think significant that this was the first visit of the working group, which demonstrates the priority being given to systematically investigating and improving  arrangements for picking and and dropping off children at Forthill. The working group have four further visits to Primary Schools in other parts of Dundee next week before we move onto devising some solutions.

The School Parking and Pupil Safety Working Group was set up by the Education Committee on Monday 27 February and the group is chaired by the Chief Executive. 

Coincidence of Death of Five Residents at Orchar Nursing Home

The deaths of five residents of the Orchar Nursing Home, within the space of two days, are being investigated by Tayside Police.
A man aged 74 and four women aged 81, 88, 90 and 91 all apparently died between Sunday 25 and Monday 26 March at the Orchar Nursing Home in The Ferry. A spokesperson for Tayside Police said it was making enquiries into these five deaths.

Message from Tayside Police

A message from Tayside Police regarding the ongoing disorder in England.

"You will be aware of the serious public disorder that has been ongoing in England over the last few days. Whilst we do not expect this sort of criminal behaviour in our communities, we need to be ready to respond should we have any instances of similar behaviour.

We all have a very important role to play in this regard.

You need to be alert to signs of anything that is different or which might be an indicator of a change from the norm and report this through appropriate channels. This can be whilst going about your job or in your private life.

Here in Scotland, we have communities that respect each other and work together.  It is a safe place to live and work. However, we are not complacent and we do have contingency plans in place should we need to respond to any disorder.

The below are key messages that I would ask you to remember when going about your business.

Tayside Police will continue to respond appropriately to any incident.

• We will continue to be active, visible and approachable in our communities
• If you need an officer to call on you, we will attend.
• We will investigate all crimes and offences in accordance with our Investigative Standards.
• We will deal with disorder robustly and proportionately.

Our communities are at the heart of everything we do, and they work closely with us in protecting their community.

• We respect each other and will not allow mindless thugs to destroy communities.
• We will work with our communities in bringing criminals to justice and protecting the vulnerable.
• Our community officers are available for you to discuss any concerns you may have.

We will take all available steps to identify potential threats to Tayside communities   

• We will act on any information which has the potential to cause alarm and distress in our communities.
• We will listen to our communities.
• We will continue to provide means by which you can contact us confidentially."

Contact Tayside Police

Non-emergency number 0300 111 2222 In an emergency call 999

Violent Incidents Against Dundee School Staff 2009/10

A comprehensive set of figures for violent incidents against school staff in Dundee have been supplied by the City Council in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from D C Thomson:

The headline figure is a total of 557 violent incidents against School staff, mainly teachers.

This is broken down by types of establishment as follows
Pre-school centres of education - 6
Primary schools - 283
Secondary schools - 112
Special schools - 146
Offsite centres - 2
Behavioural support - 8
Total 557

I am surprised and alarmed about three aspects of these figures.

Firstly there is more than a doubling of reported incidents compared with previously figures released to DC Thomson in 2009 which were as follows:

2009/10 - 557
2009 - 276
2008 - 245
2007 - 345
2006 - 353

This apparent surge in reported incidents is very concerning. Unless I can be convinced that this has been caused by changes to the system of recording of violent incidents, it is hard not to conclude that we have a growing problem in our schools. A steeply increasing number of violent incidents against school staff is unacceptable, although I concede that this still involves only a minority of our pupils.

In addition, I am very concerned that a majority of the incidents recorded were in our primary schools (5-12 year olds). This does not bode well for the future.

I also notice that the Police were only notified 5 times from those 557 incidents. Does this indicate that our schools are overly reluctant to involve the police? I wonder how many of these incidents, had they taken place on the street, would have been deemed to be common assaults.

We don't want a blackboard jungle in our schools. What measures will the Education Convener, Liz Fordyce, introduce to respond to my concerns, which I am sure are shared by many parents in the city?