Agenda item

Question

In Wokingham we have suffered increasing anti-social behaviour due to late night drinking in the town.  This is resulting in broken windows, smashed glasses and bottles around the town, destroyed flower planters and loud behaviour in the early hours, waking up local residents.  This is blighting the lives of those who live, work and use the Town centre area, especially as the mess is still there in the morning. We are in desperate need of a solution that ensures that a few people do not make things so unpleasant for the many.

It then came; much to my surprise to find that the ASB team only intend to operate till 2am.  Most of the alcohol related anti-social behaviour we see occurs after 3am, as the bars close and people are heading home.  I have suggested ways in which WBC can find funding for itself and the police – via a late-night levy on late licences – which is well within its power, if needed.  However, we desperately need extra support in Wokingham Town – now – especially in the early hours at the weekend.

Please can you explain what commitments Wokingham Borough Council are going to take in tackling this significant problem?

Answer

Anti-Social Behaviour problems across the Borough are discussed at the Wokingham multi-agency Problem Solving Task Group, which is chaired by Thames Valley Police. Issues that have been occurring in Wokingham Town were discussed at the last meeting, several actions have been agreed including;

• The Police and Council are planning an operation to check licence standards and customer compliance in Wokingham Town.
• The Council's Licensing Team and police have required a problematic license holder to update the licence conditions to be more robust in relation to CCTV and other security measures.
• The notice of variation is posted on the window of the premises for residents and other interested parties to view, comment and make representations.

In addition to this, joint visits with police licensing have been undertaken to several Wokingham late night licensed venues. It was agreed that they will work with the door staff to ensure customers are not leaving their venues with bottles and glasses.  Licensing Liaison Officers have also been looking for broken glass and engaging with venues during their weekly patrol in Wokingham.  It is also anticipated that the Wokingham Pubwatch group will be able to restart meetings again shortly.

The viability of implementing a late-night levy has recently been reviewed, in order to put this scheme in place, it requires a minimum number of late night licenses. Unfortunately, as it currently stands, there is a lack of late-night licensed premises in Wokingham to make it possible to implement one.

The Council wants to encourage people into our local towns, to enjoy the facilities and businesses and to help support the local economy. However, we also want to ensure that a few individuals do not detract from the majority of well-behaved people enjoying the town and its amenities. We anticipate that these actions will send a clear message to both the licensee and anybody thinking of behaving badly.

Supplementary Question

Well, it is good to know that they are going to try and stop them leaving pubs without glass bottles and that the Pubwatch team is going to restablish themselves. 

The problem we have is not so much in the bars themselves it is when people leave.  They are going to look for taxis and wandering around and they are walking home.  That is generally where we have the problem.  We want people to enjoy the town but we need more support on the street as people leave and there is evidence that we need some controls in that area.

So, I am kind of asking what solutions would you suggest for this piece of work?

Supplementary Answer

Let me say that the incidences that you are saying occur after 3am. The fact is that our ASB Teams will be working up until 2am as it is at the moment and after that time, obviously, the police will be in attendance as well and the sort of issues you are raising, I would think that hopefully the police will deal with.  Let me say that the times of the Anti-Social Behaviour Team is very flexible.  We do not even know if we need ten Officers throughout the night or two Officers throughout the night at the moment.  It is very early stages.  It is flexible and should there be a high demand for more Officers or longer hours then that can be reviewed, but obviously at this stage it is early stages.

What I will say is, just to give you some idea of what we are doing, tomorrow night we have some of our new Anti-Social Behaviour Teams out with the police and going to the Gig House to have a look and see what exactly is happening, and how we can best improve the service.