Detailed notes from the BID's crime & ASB meeting

CRIME AND ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR MEETING FOR CITY CENTRE BUSINESSES

Mercure Newport, June 17, 11am-1pm.

The meeting was organised by Newport Now BID and Newport Business Against Crime to enable city centre businesses to discuss their concerns about crime and ASB in the area.

Attending on a panel to answer questions from businesses were: Councillor Dimitri Batrouni (Leader, Newport City Council), Superintendent Esyr Jones (Gwent Police), Jane Mudd (Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent), Councillor Jason Hughes (Cabinet member for Communities and Sport, Newport City Council), Matthew Cridland (Public Protection Manager, Newport City Council), Dominique de Cet (Manager, NBaC).

The meeting was chaired by Kevin Ward (Manager, Newport Now BID).

Notes from the meeting…

Kevin Ward opened the meeting by introducing the panel and reading out an email from the owner of The Pot Café in Griffin Street, who was unable to attend the meeting.

The email read: The level of anti-social behaviour in the city centre has become unacceptable. Every day I come to work there is a police presence dealing with incidents. We regularly witness intimidation, aggressive behaviour, drug use, and disorder. I have personally seen people smoking what appears to be crack cocaine in doorways of the market. Groups of young people gather openly smoking cannabis during the day, often acting in an intimidating manner towards shoppers and business owners. Bikes are ridden recklessly through pedestrian areas, and verbal abuse is frequently directed at anyone who challenges this behaviour. There have been occasions where individuals in the flats above my premises have threatened self-harm, requiring emergency services attendance. Many business owners and customers no longer feel comfortable in parts of the city centre. One of my main concerns is the apparent lack of visible enforcement. When there are special events in the city, such as festivals, or when football matches are taking place, there seems to be a significant police presence. However, on ordinary days, when businesses and residents are dealing with these problems daily, there appears to be very little to absolutely no visible authority available. Why are the increasing number of vulnerable and homeless individuals being concentrated within the city centre?  Is this Newport’s idea of City living?

My questions are simple:

- Why has the situation been allowed to reach this point?

- What specific actions are being taken to reduce anti-social behaviour?

- How will enforcement and police visibility be improved?

- What support is being provided to businesses that are directly affected?

- What is the long-term plan to make the city centre feel safe and welcoming again?

The general feeling of the meeting was that the email mirrored the experiences of businesses in attendance.

The owner of Coco Blush on Commercial Street told the meeting her store had been broke into the night before the meeting. She spoke of the distress the incident had caused and also said the council had issued an enforcement order for her security shutters to be removed.

Councillor Batrouni said he would look at the enforcement issue regarding shutters, which he described as ‘nonsense’. He said: “We need to help you protect your shop. We need to work together to crack this. There seems to be key individuals that are well known, that seem to be the main perpetrators that frequent the city centre. So it's about having an honest discussion with each other to get this sorted because it’s unacceptable.”

Supt Jones said he was relatively new to the city in terms of his role and function. He had insisted his full neighbourhood team from Newport Central was at the meeting so they could hear directly the issues. He said: “First and foremost our commitment to you is to listen, to truly understand the issues. It’s not lost on me that this is personal to you all; this is your livelihoods. The reason that we're all here as a team is to truly listen. Over the coming weeks and months, I want to really work with you, not against you, to make sure you've got an accurate picture of what's going on in the city centre, and to use our enforcement powers and work with our local authority partners, to improve things.”

The manager of Hays Travel in Llanarth Street told the meeting about incidents her staff had faced, about constantly reporting crime and ASB, and said the meeting was the most police officers she had seen in months. She also praised the work of the BID’s Street Ambassadors but said they needed more support from the police.

A representative from Roger James Clements in Bridge Street said a recent incident had been captured on their CCTV and had been reported to police. They were due to attend but she then received a call to say they could not find their car keys, and she had heard nothing since.

The director of The Cab in Cambrian Road told the meeting about three recent incidents she had reported to the police. Her experience of police response and action on each occasion had been very disappointing. She said the situation was not acceptable and call handlers and officers needed better training.

The husband of the owner of Davies Florist in Upper Dock Street said they had been told by the council they could not have security shutters. He said a theft from outside their shop had been reported in October last year and the police did not respond until January. He said were no longer reporting crimes because they've got no faith in the police or the city council who, he said, have ‘no idea how to turn this downward slide of Newport City centre around at all’.

Supt Jones apologised for any poor service businesses had received in the past. He said he was determined to improve matters. He wanted to draw a line under the past and move forward and was having productive discussions with the local authority and wider partners. He said changes to court sentencing taken at a national level had an impact locally, as some regular ASB offenders were now not being sent to prison so there was no ‘firebreak’ from their behaviour. He said he was determined to make Newport city centre a safe public space and to rebuild confidence and trust in policing, but this couldn’t be achieved by pointing fingers at each other and being adversarial. He said everyone had a part to play in making sure people want to come to Newport to do their shopping, and to enjoy the facilities.

Councillor Batrouni said again that he would ask council officers to review the shutters policy. “You have to protect your businesses, and you need to support you in doing that.” He also announced a 25% reduction in business rates for small independent businesses in the city centre. He pledged the council was actively seeking to gain ownership of more buildings in the city centre to have more control over how they are used, citing the former WH Smith site in Commercial Street as an example. He said there would be no more social housing in the city centre and quashed rumours that the WH Smith building would be used for housing.

The manager of Le Pub in High Street said businesses called all give examples of things that have happened to us over the last six months that were ‘horrendous’. She gave one example of a violent attack on one of her staff. Police were provided with clear CCTV of the offender, along with his name and address, and a social media post from the person admitting the assault. The case was dropped due to lack of evidence. She said it was not about what the council can do to help, but about police policing the streets and then giving people consequences because there are no consequences to the hell we're all living through.

The general manager of Mercure Newport in Upper Dock Street said she had seen more police on the beat in the last three days than in the previous four years and felt it was happening purely because the meeting had been called and asked whether it would continue. In relation to the business rates announcement, she said all businesses needed help not just small independent ones. She said the hotel was a small business that happened to have a franchised name over the door.

Councillor Batrouni said the 25% cut proposed would cost the council around £300,000 but understood the point regarding other businesses but emphasised he did not think the help should be given to big national chains.

Supt Jones said businesses could expect to see more visible policing and said Newport city centre was the most patrolled area in Gwent. However, he recognised this might not be being felt by people and therefore he had to look at how patrols were better focussed and how police actions and enforcements were better communicated. He said he was proud to wear the Gwent Police uniform and said they would ‘be better and do better’.

The owner of Sleep Station in Stow Hill asked why there could be a high police presence in the city centre for football matches but not on a regular basis. She said she knew that major incidents would mean officers being deployed elsewhere from time to time but felt that a major focus on the city centre with more officers deployed there for two months would have a huge impact.

Supt Jones said that was a tactical option open to them and that he was having conversations with senior officers about how best to surge activity to use concentrated patrolling enforcement.

The owner of Xclusive Jewellers in High Street, whose premised had recently been broken into, asked who was responsible for the monitoring of the city centre cameras, who operates them, and where was the control room based.

Matthew Cridland said he was responsible for the CCTV in the city centre. The control room was based at the Civic Centre and was manned 24 hours a day. He said he would invite the Xclusive Jewellers owner to the control room. He said some cameras in the city centre were down and had been for some time but this was down to their age, and they were being repaired. He said the ones pointing at Xclusive Jewellers were operational. He had been asked by Councillor Hughes to investigate what information was passed to police about the incident and when. He said there were always two operatives in the control room. He promised to give the owner of the premises a full explanation of what had happened once the investigation was concluded.

Councillor Hughes said there were CCTV system failures in parts of the city centre and the council had pledged money for a full upgrade which would include AI functions and some automation of the system, although there would still be people in place to view footage as there is now.  He said some of the current cameras were failing because they're old, and the new system would be much stronger due to the better technology now available.

A representative of the Dolman Theatre in Kingsway, who lives above the venue, said he had never seen anyone other than the BID’s Street Ambassadors patrolling the area. He said there was a lot of ASB in the area, particularly drug taking and dealing, and young people causing damage to buildings which was costing thousands of pounds in damage.

The owner of Belle Femme in Llanarth Street, who is also a volunteer director of Newport Now BID, said ‘sewer rats’ were now ‘running our town’. She said there were too many services for those with addictions and other issues in the city centre which led to such people congregating here and they should be moved elsewhere. She said the CSOs, council wardens and BID Ambassadors were all doing a good job but what was really needed was more police.

Supt Jones said modern-day ASB was testing the way in which police could apply their powers. The old days of youths kicking footballs or being verbally abusive had gone. He said the people being referred to had complex needs and the council, health authorities and charities all had a part to play but that there comes a point when enforcement has to happen. He said the people currently being dealt with, some hugely vulnerable, all in a public space was beyond anything he had seen before in his time as a police officer. Changes to court sentences was not helping the situation. He urged attendees at the meeting to sign up to the police’s Neighbourhood Matters community messaging and engagement service. He said he wanted businesses to be able to see increased activity from the police and other partners in the coming weeks.

The owner of Belle Femme said people simply did not feel safe in the city centre.

A representative from M&S Food in Friars Walk said crime and ASB was one of the reasons why the store was closing on Saturday. She said not enough was being done to stop regular shoplifters from returning time and again to steal – often up to eight times a day. She said the store had received good support from Friars Walk and the BID Ambassadors. She said the police were under-resourced and she would rather see money being spent on business rate reductions spent on more police. She said if action was not taken quickly, more businesses would go under.

Councillor Batrouni said the 25% business rates discount would not solve crime and ASB and was not intended to, but it was a way of supporting small businesses. He said again that the level of crime being experienced by some businesses was not acceptable and all authorities had to work together to reduce it.

Supt Jones said it was clear to him that his operational teams have to go back and work out a plan of action. From what he was hearing today, people are scared, people don't feel safe, and that's clearly our job to change and to turn things around. It won’t happen overnight but it had to happen. He said a small concentration of people cause the greatest harm. He promised more police visibility and more enforcement, and that was a clear message that would go from him to his teams.

Matthew Cridland said the council also employ enforcement officers. He said the number of these officers would be increasing and that would mean at least three officers on duty in the city centre every day from July onwards. While they are not the police, they can issue fines and play a large part in gathering intelligence for further enforcement. A weekly meeting reviewing safety and security in the nighttime economy is being expanded from June 22 to include the daytime economy. This meeting will include police, council, the BID, NBaC, and other partners. The idea is that everyone is working together to achieve the same goal of a safer city centre.

The operations manager from Kingsway she watches 44 cameras a day for 8 hours a day. There is an investigation if something is missed. It was important to find out if something went wrong with the monitoring during the Xclusive Jewellers break-in.

Matthew Cridland reiterated there was an investigation taking place.

A representative from Sean’s Barbers in Kingsway SEANS BARBERS said she had been based in Commercial Street but crime and ASB got so bad that she has moved inside the Kingsway centre to be better protected. She asked what could be done about vape shops and barbers that were criminal enterprises and were closed down only to open up elsewhere within days. She also asked the panel to work more closely with the Kingsway owner who was doing a fantastic job. She also said she had been a BID levy payer for 10 years but this was the first meeting she had been aware of, and had no idea there was a radio system.

Kevin Ward said the BID held two open meetings a year, usually in March and November. KW So let me take the question on the beach. At every meeting, details are given about how the radio system works, how the DISC system works, how the Ambassadors work, along with all the other BID services. Details are on the BID website, social media pages and e-shots. Physical invitations were also delivered to businesses.

The security manager of Friars Walk said in 10 years he had seen some horror stories in the area. He said reductions in occupied units meant reductions in money available for security and cleaning. He said he had experienced a lack of support from the police because the centre was private land. He said his security staff had been victims of serious assaults. He said, as an ex-serviceman, he understood the challenges being faced by the police but Newport was a city in decline and needed more police support.

Councillor Batrouni said he came into the city centre every day but he recognised he did not live and breathe it as business owners did. He said he was not blind to the issues. He accepted authorities had to work better with private security.

Dominique de Cet said StoreNet was available to everyone. It's the radio that links shops, police, Ambassadors, CCTV etc. Most of the large retailers and licensed premises within the city have it, along with some independents. There is a charge for it, and she would be available to give more information as well as leaflets at the end of the meeting.

The owner of Pure Pets in Commercial Street said her business had relocated form the market as she thought it would be a lot safer for her customers. Instead, she has constant issues with people attending the Hub opposite her shop, customers being repeatedly asked for money by beggars, and an attempted robbery of one customer. She said the Hub should not be located in the main retail centre. The problems are often happening before 9am.

A representative from The Place in Bridge Street said the area near their premises (between the banks by the statues) was a hotspot for ASB. She said there had been a huge spike in incidents in the last 2 to 3 years with an increase in social housing and the use of the Travelodge and Queen’s Hotel to house people with a variety of issues. She said she regularly has to clean up human faeces outside her doorway. She had a bike thrown at her because she asked someone to leave the premises.

The owner of RJ Phillips Interiors in Bridge Street, who is also a volunteer director of Newport Now BID, said she had been broken into three times. She said CCTV in the area of her premises was either not pointing in the right direction or not working at all. She said the police had been ‘amazing’ in response to each burglary. She asked whether the new CCTV system being proposed would mean replacing existing cameras or having more of them, and whether businesses would be consulted as to where they would be placed. All businesses needed the confidence of knowing their premises were being watched.

Councillor Batrouni said the council was in dialogue with GDAS (Gwent Drug and Alcohol Service) regarding the Hub and whether gates or barriers could be placed across the entrance.  He said a consultation with businesses regarding the new CCTV system was a good idea and he would take that away. He said the current CCTV system would be totally replaced and the new system would include more AI and automation, which would alert operators to incidents as a backstop to the operators watching the screens as they do already.

Matthew Cridland said the new system had the potential to include facial recognition to help identify known suspects or people who were wanted by the police or subject to banning orders.   

Kevin Ward reminded attendees of the DISC app that was run by NBaC but funded by the BID to ensure all levy payers have free access to it. It is an information-sharing app where users can submit their own reports, upload photographs, and it links to the BID’s Street Ambassadors and the police. The app also features photographs and names of everybody banned from the city centre or from licensed premises.

Dominique de Cet said DISC was a really good app but it needed more businesses to sign up to use it. She again said businesses could see her after the meeting for more details and to take a form to sign up to the app.

A representative of the St Vincent de Paul Society charity shop in Commercial Street said the bus station at Friars Walk was a hotspot for ASB. She gave an example of two youths on an electric bike intimidating an older woman in the bus station. She was subject to verbal abuse and had drink thrown over her. She said there was no security or police presence. She said this was not an isolated incident. As a result, she is now given a lift home from work most days as she does not feel comfortable in the bus station. She said she comes into the city centre to work at the shop but does not stay in the area for longer than necessary. She described the area around the charity shop as ‘the wild west’ and said staff had to regularly clean up human faeces and needles. Drug users and alcoholics often enter the shop and behave aggressively. Staff have had personal possessions stolen from inside the shop.

The commercial manager of Newport Transport says nobody will take ownership for the security of the bus station. He said bus drivers are told to stay in their cabs if they witness crime or ASB and report it to the police. He feared that a driver of member of the public will eventually take matters into their own hands, believing it to be the right course of action, and end up in trouble themselves.

The manager of The Potters in Upper Dock Street said they were broken into last week and the police did a good job. His fear was the courts would be lenient with the offender and they would be back out doing the same within weeks. Drug taking is rife in the area. The pub used StoreNet to report incidents but was regularly told CCTV was not working. He said his premises had a condition on their licence to say they must have CCTV and it must be working. He asked why the council did not have the same conditions.

The husband of the owner of Davies Florist in Upper Dock Street raised again the issue of the automatic bollards now installed on his street and others. He said it was anti-business, making it virtually impossible for premises like his to receive and make deliveries. He said it meant police cars could not regularly patrol there, and taxis could not use the streets. This reduced the number of eyes in the area. He suggested placing CCTV in or in front of the bollards. He said the council was making the wrong calls with regard to the city centre.

The manager of Hays Travel in Llanarth Street emphasised again that the solution to much of what was being raised at the meeting was an increased police presence and proper consequences for those committing crime and ASB.

The manager of the Queen’s Hotel in Bridge Street said he had recently taken over management of the premises. He said people with a variety of issues were house in the hotel and that they were all subject to a curfew from 1am to 7am, along with a variety of ASB, aggression, drugs and alcohol rules. Those who break the curfew or the rules risk eviction. He said he was keen to work with police and businesses.

A representative from Roger James Clements in Bridge Street said they had emailed Councillor Batrouni a number of times regarding the state of the city centre and that the replies suggesting what they were saying was different to feedback he was receiving from others. The representative said he was not sure who Councillor Batrouni had been talking to.

The owner of New Pastures Home in Commercial Street, who is also the Chair of NBaC, said it was good to hear from the manager of the Queen’s Hotel. He said he was aware of a number of hotels and private landlords housing people with complex needs in the city centre and asked whether any of the money being received by them was put towards policing and enforcement of crime and ASB in the area.

The husband of the owner of Davies Florist in Upper Dock Street said the panel needed to understand that crime and ASB in the city centre was not just a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday problem. He said delivers to his premises were often in the early hours but because of the bollards they had to transport them from Skinner Street. He said the Upper Dock Street bus station in the early hours was like a ‘war zone’. He said problems did not go away at 5pm but he had never seen a police officer in the early hours. He said he had been lobbying the council and the local MP for the last few months but felt he was receiving political lip service in response. He said claims that footfall was increasing in the city centre were inaccurate. He said the traffic restrictions in the city centre, including the new bollards, meant the entire area was effectively closed for 20 hours a day every day. He said if businesses wanted to speak to him he would organise a ‘proper meeting’ and start a campaign for action.

Supt Jones said all police positions in the area were filled so there was a full staff available in all neighbourhood beat areas, including the city centre. He explained that as an emergency service, he could never guarantee that officers would be in any beat area 100% of the time as major incidents meant moving resources around. However, he emphasised again that his intention was to increase police visibility and enforcement in the city centre.

Councillor Batrouni said he was not aware of a lot of money being paid to private landlords. The council had a legal duty to provide housing for people without homes, and sometimes that is in hotels, B&Bs and other private establishments. That duty had become stricter during and after Covid. He said ‘wraparound support’ was needed for many of these individuals and that had to be provided in partnership with health authorities and the third sector as neither the council nor the police was equipped to deal with issues such as mental health.

The owner of New Pastures Home in Commercial Street, said everyone in the room was being affected by some of the individuals being housed in the city centre. They were not the only cause of problems but the vast majority of people that he had issues with on a daily basis are people that are living above the shops or in hotels. He said there should be money set aside in contracts with private landlords or hotels to pay for additional police or enforcement officers.

David Walton, the Head of Housing and Communities at Newport City Council, said the council funds a range of support services, including the Salvation Army’s street outreach service that does a breakfast run every morning. They're going out and engaging with people who are actually on the street and working with them to try and find a housing solution. About 18 months ago, the council funded a service specifically for people with multiple and complex needs. This population have histories of trauma, often dating back to their childhood, that have led to health and substance abuse issues. The council also recently funded a mental health social worker, specifically focussed on people who are homeless or threatened with homelessness. He said he thought there was more they could do with other engagement, such as with the person managing the Queen’s Hotel. There need to be ways to manage behaviour and its impact other than just enforcement.

The manager of Nat West bank in Bridge Street said they had a massive issue with individuals and youths gathering in the area outside their premises. She said her customers were scared and intimidated by these people and their behaviour. She praised the support received from the BID’s Street Ambassadors but said they had regular problems on a Monday because those causing issues seem to know the Ambassadors do not work on Mondays. She said the Ambassadors did a brilliant job but should not be dealing with what they have to. She asked why there were not police in the area regularly as it is a known hotspot for crime and ASB.

Kevin Ward said he was looking at the moment to see if money could be moved around to add Mondays to the Ambassadors’ work schedule so they were on duty six days a week rather than five. This would need approval from the BID board. He emphasised the BID had a finite amount of money with a lot of things to try to do with it. He said again that while this was a special meeting, the BID holds two open meetings for levy payers every year – one in March and one in October or November. He also urged businesses to make use of the BID website – www.newportnow.co.uk as everything done by the BID is on there. The contact details for the Ambassadors and himself were on the website.

The owner of Classic African Foods in High Street asked whether the hours of the BID’s Night Ambassadors could be extended.

Kevin Ward said he would like nothing more than to have the Street and Night Ambassadors on duty 24 hours a day but the funding was not available. He explained the Night Ambassadors service was for Fridays and Saturdays only from 8pm to 4am. This service was entirely grant funded by the Police and Crime Commissioner for Gwent and there was no cost to BID levy payers. Their role is to support the night time economy. He emphasised that the BID’s Ambassadors were not the police. They were there to support the police and other enforcement agencies, not the other way round.

Supt Jones said he understood the strength of feeling being expressed by businesses at the meeting. He said if businesses had received a bad service from the police in the past then he apologised but he wanted to reassure attendees that he had listened and he would make improvements. He said it was vital that everyone worked together to make the city centre safer. He said he was committed to more visible policing and more robust enforcement so people can feel safe whether it's day or night.

Councillor Batrouni said he disagreed that he was paying lip service to the problems. He said he loved Newport as much as anyone in the room and nothing would make him happier than watching the city centre boom. But he said people had to be realistic that the days of big retail were not coming back so we have to reshape the city centre, to encourage more independents, and to re-think some areas. He said every city centre in the UK was having to increase pedestrianisation and introduce things like bollards for serious reasons – if he could change that then he would.

The owner of Yummies in Upper Dock Street said he could not get deliveries – which were often frozen goods – into his shop, which opens at 3pm, because of the bollards.

Dominique de Cet said through NBaC she also helped to run Pub Watch for the night time economy and that had become a really important forum for licensed premises to engage with the police and council. She was now working on setting up a similar regular forum for the daytime economy and would provide more details in future weeks.

The owner of Belle Femme in Llanarth Street said everybody in the room wanted action, not promises. There needed to be zero tolerance policing and enforcement in the city centre even if it was for two months to deter the people who cause the issues. She said it had worked in New York, so why not here? She also said giving people tickets did not work.

Supt Jones said the lessons from New York was that it was about challenging behaviour, and that did include giving tickets and fines. He wanted to see proportionate enforcement – it couldn’t just be about locking people up and throwing away the key. However, he said the principle of the point made about New York was part of the key to success. He said how well everyone worked together would define how successful we are.

Kevin Ward drew the meeting to a close by thanking everyone for taking the time to attend and make their views known. He said the BID would continue lobbying the police, council and others and holding them to account on behalf of businesses. To that end, a follow-up meeting would be organised in September so progress could be reviewed.