Agenda and minutes

In the event the fire alarm sounds attendees will be advised to evacuate the building via the nearest fire exit and assemble at the Bottle of Notes opposite MIMA.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

Some minor amendments to the minutes of the Place Scrutiny Panel meeting held on 22^nd December 2025 were proposed. It was agreed that these would be incorporated, and the minutes were then approved.

The Head of Neighbourhoods and the Community Safety Partnership Officer will be in attendance to provide the Panel with Statutory updates on:

·        Community Safety Partnership

·        Prevent and Channel

Recommendation:  That Members note the information provided.

The Head of Neighbourhoods began by advising Members that the Community Safety Partnership (CSP) was a statutory partnership made up of key ‘Responsible Authorities’ who had equal responsibility for reducing crime and antisocial behaviour under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (As amended by the Antisocial Behaviour Act 2014 and the Policing and Crime Act 2017). The Responsible Authorities included Police, Local Authority, Fire and Rescue Authority, Health, Probation and the Youth Justice Service. They worked in collaboration with other statutory and voluntary services as well as local people to reduce crime and make people feel safer by dealing with issues such as antisocial behaviour, drug and alcohol misuse, re-offending and serious violence.

Middlesbrough Community Safety Partnership continued to meet every 3 months and partners discussed key strategic issues relating to community safety. The CSP Plan was set every 2 years and it was due for review this year. This would be completed with new priorities by the end of 2026. This process would be informed by a strategic intelligence assessment that would review data from a range of sources looking at patterns and trends of crime and ASB and would include details relating to geographic locations and hotspots.

The CSP currently had three main priorities:

·        Priority 1 - Feel Safe

Reducing crime and antisocial behaviour including environmental crime (there has been a 15% reduction in crime over the past three years)

Improving community cohesion and resilience

Delivering the prevent agenda

·        Priority 2 – Be Safe

Improve mental health

Reduce exploitation

Reduce substance misuse

Reduce domestic violence

Tackling serious violence

·        Priority 3 – Stay Safe

Working with communities (doing ‘with’ not ‘to’)

Improving environmental cleanliness

Addressing underlying community issues  

The CSP had formulated a detailed delivery plan which set out how each partner agency would achieve the objectives identified under each three priorities. The partnership also had a number of subgroups to support the delivery of statutory functions.

A Member raised that although statistics pointed to a reduction in crime, this was not what was being felt in communities. It was suggested that residents were often reluctant to report incidents due to perceived lack of response.

The Head of Neighbourhoods agreed that all emphasis should not be placed on data as this often does not show the full picture, although it was still a valuable tool to inform plans and strategies. As a Council we must encourage communities to report crime and it was noted that there was still a comparison to be made as those crimes that went unreported crimes today were probably consistent with those that went unreported in earlier years. The CSP used a variety of indicators to guide their work and inform the Community Safety Plan.

Members queried how consultations were carried out to gather information for the Community Safety Plan and it was raised that some residents missed the public consultations due to limited access to the internet or reduced mobility. A Member suggested the surveys be available and advertised in places such as post  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26/49

Recommendation: That the Panel considers the content of the draft Final Report and agrees recommendations for inclusion in the report.

A copy of the Draft Final Report on Barriers to Regeneration had been circulated with the agenda. Members discussed the information provided and some minor amendments were suggested. Members also discussed recommendations for inclusion in the Final Report.

AGREED as follows that:

The following recommendations were included in the Final Report:

A.     Carry out a survey of college and university students, to gain feedback to see if people who had come from different places across the country and now studied in Middlesbrough could suggest ways of improving Middlesbrough, from their own life experiences from where they were born.

A.     Members and Officers to actively promote the town - many positive things are happening in Middlesbrough but they are often overlooked and overshadowed by the negative. This could be achieved through a marketing campaign using the voices of local residents and their positive experiences.

B.     Support and deliver more town centre events with a strong emphasis on cultural activity to drive footfall and encourage people that live local and further afield to travel into the town centre.

C.    Redevelop Linthorpe Road to create a more compact retail centre to naturally increase footfall. The increased activity could make the town centre feel more vibrant and safer.

D.    Increase the number of Neighbourhood Safety Wardens to provide a reassuring presence and help to build confidence in the town centre.

E.     Work in partnership with businesses to ensure compliance with street‑drinking regulations and discourage related activity around their premises.

F.     Increase green spaces in the town centre which could provide significant health (mental & physical), environmental (cleaner air, less heat, better drainage), social (community building, recreation), and economic (higher property values, tourism, jobs) benefits.

G.    Work in collaboration with Tees Valley Combined Authority to improve transport links into the town centre and outer areas of Middlesbrough to ensure key points of interest are easily accessible.

H.    Increase Middlesbrough Town Hall/Box Office opening times to improve accessibility and user satisfaction and potentially function as a dual-purpose information hub.

I.       Strengthen our relationship with Middlesbrough Development Corporation (MDC) further and work together towards the common goal.

J.      Apply for an extension to funding from the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioners Cleveland Unit for Reducing Violence (CURV) for the Night-Time Economy Pilot Project, which is currently due to end in March 2026.

16 February 2026 at 1.30pm.

The next meeting of the Place Scrutiny Panel was scheduled for Monday 16 February 2026 at 1.30 pm

Any other urgent items which in the opinion of the Chair, may be considered.

None.