Agenda and draft minutes

It was moved by Councillor Hollywell and seconded by Councillor Clark, that Councillor Boylan be appointed Chairman for the meeting. After being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that Councillor Boylan be appointed Chairman for the meeting.

To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Williamson (East Herts), Councillors Lloyd and Henry (Stevenage), Councillors Billing and Albert (North Herts) and Councillors Choudhury and Spencer (Hertsmere).

There were no Chairman’s announcements.

To receive any Members' declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2020.

Councillor Curtis proposed, and Councillor Newmark seconded a motion that the minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2020 be approved as a correct record. On being put to the meeting and a vote taken, the motion was declared CARRIED.

RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting held on 19 November 2020 be approved as a correct record.

The Operations Manager presented the report to the Committee. He said that the partnership continued to look to improve standards across the whole partnership and was looking at alternative ways of working to help alleviate budgets. He informed Members that the partnership had four RIPA requests from the police and had no data breaches.

The Operations Manager said that the team had trialled downloading CCTV footage via a link which was successful but were now waiting for the police to provide the team with the relevant protocols to launch the service. He explained that currently, police must attend the Control Room to download footage onto a disc.

The Operations Manager further reported that the number of mobile cameras across the partnership was increasing and Hertsmere had recently purchased five cameras. He updated Members on the ShopWatch and PubWatch radio link which was now digitalised and working well in seven towns that were monitored. There were 250 radio users which helped with continuity within those towns and was something the partnership would like to expand.

The Operations Manager invited all Members of the Committee to the Control Room to see how it operates.

Councillor Curtis referred to Appendix A of the report which stated that there were no proposed changes to the Code of Conduct. He asked the Operations Manager if he was confident that the operations in the CCTV service were as good as they could be.

The Operations Manager said there were no major amendments to the Code except the change in the reporting system that the Control Room use.

Councillor Newmark thanked the Officer for the informative report. He asked if the Officers could explain more about the protocols that they were waiting on from the police in order to move to a cloud based file sharing system. He said that he recalled it being an issue 18 months ago and the Constabulary regularly reported to the Hertsmere Scrutiny Committee about their frustrations at not being able to download footage easily. He asked when the issue would be sorted.

The Control Room Manager said that the service had proven that they can upload footage to a secure server but the server needed to be provided by the police alongside any protocol for sending the correct links to load to a secure file system. He said the system needed to conform to the relevant GDPR protocols and enquiries had been made but he had not received any response to date.

The Operations Manager added that the review was now with a Sergeant who was looking at resourcing a full time member of staff to the downloading suite. There was currently only one part time member of staff manning the suite who carries out all the downloading of footage for the whole of the Hertfordshire Police Service. It was a police issue but one that the team were trying to move forward.

Councillor Boylan asked if the issue could be escalated to ensure it was resolved quickly.

The Operations Manager  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Assistant Director for Communities and Neighbourhoods (Stevenage Borough Council) presented the report to Members. He said that that the Officer Board from each of the four councils meet on a quarterly basis in between the Joint Executive meetings. At the last meeting, Members were concerned about the increasing costs of the partnership so an immediate review into costs was held in relation to operations and how savings could be made. The CCTV Group Manager at Stevenage Borough Council retired and the decision was made not to replace the role and restructure the team which had a financial saving. The Board also commissioned a review into neighbouring districts CCTV provision with exploratory work around potential expansion of the partnership. The review has looked beyond Hertfordshire into surrounding counties. Some of the conversations have progressed and a detailed set of proposals would be bought in front of the committee at a future meeting.

The Assistant Director also highlighted to Members the position of the Town Councils in East Herts which have served notice on their intention to withdraw whilst they carry out a procurement exercise to ensure they were getting best value for money.

Following from the minutes of the last meeting, the Assistant Director explained that there had been some discussion around the progression of the company and investment in business development management. The Officer Board met with the Company Board to understand where the work was going and have encouraged them to present to the Committee at a future meeting.

Councillor Boylan referred to the action points in the last set of minutes not being actioned. He was disappointed that there was no evidence of progression presented to the Committee and did not feel there was any urgency to progress. He said that the Committee had been made aware of the Town Councils intention to withdraw and the partnership cannot assume that they would get the business back.

The Assistant Director for Communities and Neighbourhoods (Stevenage Borough Council) said that the partnership could request that the company provide information and a report but they do not have any control over them. He said that he understood that work was going on and could push for it to be shared with the Committee. Officers were not responsible for writing the business plans as it was a Director responsibility but they had looked a partnership expansion to understand the CCTV service in other Districts. He said the partnership had met with the Chief Finance Officers across Hertfordshire to discuss the financial implications. He said that time was critical, especially with the potential loss of the Town Council cameras and the partnership cannot be complacent and needed to act more commercial.

Councillor Newmark said that the Hertsmere Scrutiny Committee had decided to open a scrutiny review into CCTV to include the operation of the partnership. He felt that the group was opaque, hard to understand and too complicated that it was hampering progress. He said that the Committee have not been presented  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To agree a date for the next meeting.

The Democratic Services teams from the four authorities to liaise with each other to set a date for the next meeting in February 2022.

To consider such other business as, in the opinion of the Chairman of the meeting, is of sufficient urgency to warrant consideration and is not likely to involve the disclosure of exempt information.

There was no urgent business.