Council Meeting - A Safe Place to Live

There were only seven councillors at the monthly meeting last night, including Mr Gittins, the newest councillor - the ombudsman decided that the rules had been followed and he was allowed to be a Hay councillor after all. There was some annoyance that a letter had been printed in the Brecon and Radnor about the numbers of people who had voted for the new councillors as opposed to the existing councillors - Nigel the town clerk contacted them to say the numbers were inaccurate, and gave the correct figures, but the Brecon and Radnor didn't print that, but there wasn't much enthusiasm for chasing up the B&R for a correction now.

The election of new councillors to fill the places left vacant by the resignation of Rhona Muirhead and Sue Felgate will be held sometime towards the end of December. The Community Centre, which is usually the Polling Station, is no longer suitable - it has deteriorated somewhat since it has closed - so other sites are being looked at and the front runner seems to be the Bowls Club, which has the space and the parking to make it convenient.

Inspector Scrace, the temporary Inspector for Breconshire (though he hopes to become permanent) had been invited to speak. There hasn't been a police report for some time, as PC Fion Thomas was ill, and then went off to work on a wildlife crime job - something he is apparently very good at - so Insp. Scrace was able to give a few up to date figures.
Powys Police are the best in the UK in detecting crimes, but their priority is prevention, and it seems to be working.
There were 16 violent crimes in the Breconshire area since April this year - and last year there were 37.
There were 21 sexual offences this year, and 41 last year.
There were 12 burglaries this year - two of houses and the rest of sheds - and 14 last year, with two being of houses again.
There were 22 thefts this year, including shoplifting, and 22 last year.
So not such an improvement there, but these are crimes that are hard to solve.
There were 31 cases of criminal damage this year, compared to 46 last year.
There were 26 drugs offences this year, of which five were for trafficking and 18 were for cannabis possession - I missed the figures for last year.
There were 174 complaints about anti-social behaviour this year, including boy racers, compared to 232 last year.
The presence of a PCSO has helped a lot around Hay. The present PCSO is Helen Scott, and everyone agreed it was good to see her out and about. The Inspector is also keen to see the PCs out and about, rather than centralised in Brecon Police Station waiting to be called out. He said that one of their priorities is policing the border between Wales and the West Mercia police area, because it was fairly common for criminals to come across and then disappear back to England.

While the Inspector was available, he was asked about dog fouling - but said that getting PCSOs to issue fixed penalty fines was not a priority for them. Another option that Ellie Spencer has been exploring is to give the Traffic Wardens the ability to issue fixed penalties (which are now £80), as well as to recruit dog walkers to become volunteer community dog wardens, to give out poo bags where necessary and report on people who allow their dogs to foul the paths. The volunteering wouldn't mean doing anything they weren't already doing, as it would just mean taking notice of other dog walkers when they went out normally with their dogs, but they would have training from Keep Wales Tidy. There is a scheme running in Hereford which covers dog fouling, fly tipping and graffiti, and they have been talking to Ellie, too.