To meet the Community Wardens and receive an activity update.

Tiia Stephens and Jamie White gave a brief talk on their role as community wardens within the borough. Members noted the following key points:

Ø  Wardens carried out patrols in the town centres during the hours of the night time economy from 7pm Friday nights to 3am Sunday mornings.

Ø  Most of the problems they encounter include taxi’s parking where they are not allowed, littering and licensing operation issues.

Ø  The community wardens were the eyes and the ears of the town and often report to Street Care, Licensing and Environmental Protection.

Ø  Community wardens used marked cars and sometimes unmarked cars so even if the public did not see them, it did not mean they were not there.

Ø  Community wardens got involved with a lot of work carried out by other agencies, they can check if music was played too loudly and dealt with anti-social behaviour issues.

Ø  Community wardens liaised with other agencies and also interacted with the homeless and signposted other services to them.

Ø  Aside from their night time duties, community wardens often visited homeless shelters in the area and homeless drop in centres.

Ø  They visited the Windsor Baptist Church where homeless people could get something to eat, get a shower and receive help with drug dependency issues.

Ø  Community wardens worked shifts but there were always community wardens on duty

Ø  Evening tasking took place once or twice per week where they checked hotspot areas and they filled in tasking sheets and noted the time and place where an incident had taken place so that it could be tracked.

Ø  Wardens liaised with the licensing team over illegally parked taxis. They took note of the licence plate and vehicle detai8ls so that licensing were able to deal with it

Ø  Community wardens carried a needle kit to dispose of discarded, used needles when found.

Ø  As part of their role, community wardens also work to safeguard the elderly and young children and they can refer them onto other services.

Ø  Community wardens also carry out a lot of ad hoc duties such as taking lost property to police stations and dealing with buskers, checking if they had a licence to busk and moving them on if they did not.

Ø  Community wardens carry out visits to the Kind George VI day centre and the Bows Lions Sheltered Housing where they sit and have a cup of tea with the residents. The community wardens can help with issues such as faulty street lighting.

Ø  Community wardens were linked into the town centre radio system so they can hear when they are needed.

Ø  They enforce dog fouling fines and litter fines

Ø  Tiia Stephens worked closely with the recycling team and supported community recycling events

Ø  Community wardens patrolled events that took place when the weather was nicer such as unlicensed BBQs and also provided home safety advice.

Ø  Community wardens carried out operations with the police against pick pockets operating in town centres and prevention of camping in local parks.

Jamie White, community warden confirmed that there was always community warden cover so that even if there was a team working nights at the weekend, there would still be a team on duty during the day. The team worked in shift patterns and staff were rotated.

Cllr Rayner stated there was a lot of homeless in Windsor. Jamie White stated that a lot of them came from Slough as they know that Windsor had a lot more tourists and there was more money that in Slough. Community wardens advise the homeless that they could get shelter and accommodation at York house but, even if they did get help with housing, they still needed money to live so would continue to beg on the streets. Paul Roach, Windsor Town Manager stated that some people looked homeless but they were not. They had somewhere to live but stayed in Windsor as they may have had an illness or addiction which they needed to fund through begging.

Cllr Quick stated the community wardens work made such a big difference and that they had grown the role to cover more areas and duties. Craig Miller, Head of Community Protection & Enforcement confirmed the community warden service was a seven day per week service and offers wardens could respond 24 hours per day.

Helen Price stated that the Windsor Homeless Project was struggling to cope with the volume of homelessness in the Windsor area as it was very intensive trying to reintegrate the homeless back into society. Cllr Rayner responded saying they Borough had opened up two houses for the homeless including an emergency shelter where people could stay a night during severe weather. The Chairman confirmed that the budget to help with homelessness had been increased to help with the issue. Tiia Stephens stated that if anyone saw someone begging, they should call 101 as that would help to build up a log of evidence. Craig Miller confirmed it was a Manifesto commitment to increase the number of community wardens from 18 to 36 by 2019 for the whole Borough.

Tiia Stephens confirmed that the street entertainer with the dog made out of sand had been moved on and had been told he was not allowed to work in the Town. However, if he was seen again, the public was to call 101 and report him.