Agenda and draft minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Nora Ball and Alan Cain.

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any personal interest in respect of matters contained in this agenda. If the interest arises only as result of your membership of another public body or one to which you have been appointed by the Council then you only need to declare it if you intend to speak.

If the personal interest is a prejudicial interest, you must withdraw from the meeting. Normally you should leave the room before the business starts to be discussed. You do, however, have the same right to speak as a member of the public and may remain in the room to enable you to exercise that right and then leave immediately. In either case you must not seek to improperly influence a decision on the matter.

No declarations of interest were declared.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Local Strategic Partnership meeting held on 27 February 2009 (enclosed)

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Local Strategic Partnership meeting held on 27 February 2009 be held as a correct record for signing by the Chair.

Councillor Ken Ball will talk to the Group about the Alcohol Designation Order in place at Coppull.

Councillor Ken Ball spoke to the Group about the Alcohol Designation Order that had been implemented in Coppull to help combat the anti-social behaviour issues they had been consistently having in the village. The Order would allow for Police intervention if deemed necessary for people found consuming alcohol that were causing a nuisance, over 18 years of age.

The residents of Coppull had experienced anti-social behaviour for quite sometime around the Leisure Centre, near the Springfield Road Estate. Large numbers of young people were travelling from all over the Borough to congregate in this area, consuming alcohol.

The Parish Council decided had decided to seek an Alcohol Designation Order for an area of the village and had consulted with the local residents that were affected.

The process had been a slow and complicated one as there were many legalities that needed to be done by the Borough Council’s Legal Department, before permission was finally granted by the Home Office.

The Parish Council Members felt that the Order has been successful for the residents of Coppull, and a Police Report showing statistical information for the period 1 July 2008 – 13 March 2009 seemed to reflect this, with a huge reduction in phone calls to the Police for this period compared to previous. The numbers of youths congregating around the Leisure Centre had dramatically reduced and there was every indication that the problem has just not moved on to a different area of the Village. Councillor Ball also reported that the Police would recommend extending to other others areas of Coppull.

Members of the Group were impressed by the evidence presented and thought that there were many other areas of the Borough that could benefit from such a scheme. They also talked about the possibilities of implementing a full Alcohol Ban for all the Play Area’s around Chorley and the Town Centre.

RESOLVED – 1.      That the Task Group consider recommending a combination of Alcohol Designation Orders and Alcohol Ban’s around the Borough in its Final Report.

2.         Representatives from the police, neighbourhoods and legal be invited to attend the next meeting of the Task Group to give their views.

3.         That the Group seeks to get a view from Councillor Ralph Snape about issues in his ward.

The draft Final Report will be circulated at the meeting.

The Group received the draft Final Report for consideration and some amendments were made.

RESOLVED – That the Group would give further consideration to the draft Final Report and that any comments would be given at the next meeting of the Group.

Members of the public who have requested the opportunity to ask a question(s) on an item(s) on the agenda will be asked to put their question(s) to the Panel. Each member of the public will be allowed to ask one supplementary question within his/her allocated 3 minutes.  

There were no public questions.

RESOLVED              That a further meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Task Group – Local Strategic Partnership be held on 30 April 2009 at 11.00am, and that Councillors Ken ball and Stella Walsh be invited to attend.