The Chairperson introduced to the meeting Police Constable Rhys Gronow who, Hate Crime Officer, South Wales Police, who gave a power point Presentation on the subject of Community Relations in the Bridgend County Borough. This was supported by a report from the Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services, and the purpose of the report was to inform Members of current intelligence surrounding community relations within the County Borough.

PC Gronow then proceeded to give his Presentation, which covered the following themes:-

• A definition of community tensions and an explanation of what this means;
• The reasons why community tensions need to be monitored in our area;
• The types of incidents, events and occurrences that can impact community dynamics
• An overview of community cohesion in Oldham;
• A practical hypothetical example; and
• Examples of the current tensions in Bridgend County Borough

Following the Presentation, the Chairperson asked Members if they had any questions to pose on the same.

A Member felt that various types of social media communications could instigate unpleasantness or even nastiness directed from some person or organisation to another, and he asked the Police representative, what action the Police took in instances such as this.

PC Gronow encouraged people who were or had been the subject of this, to report it to the Police, especially if it was of the nature of topics such as racism, sexuality and ageism etc, or the like, as dependent upon the seriousness of this, it could be deemed as a criminal offence.

A Member asked what action the Police took, if any, with regard to a person being similarly maligned or labelled on facebook.

PC Gronow confirmed that this was a difficult area, in that libel or defamation of character were Civil offences that were normally pursued by one party against another, and this could be through the Courts. However, the Police ordinarily dealt with Criminal as opposed to Civil offences.

A Member asked if the presentation delivered to the Committee today, was also given in schools, and if the proposals that were proposed by the Police to improve community relations were hindered in any way due to cutbacks in the Police.

PC Gronow confirmed that Schools Liaison Officers gave presentations throughout schools in the County Borough on this topic, with each Presentation being slightly adapted for that particular location. He added that the Project was funded by Welsh Government as well as the Police, and therefore, there were sufficient resources at present by which to deliver the aims and objectives by which to improve tensions within communities.

The Deputy Leader added that it would be helpful if today’s presentation could be supplemented by details regarding the Council’s Show Racism the Red Card initiative through the School Liaison Officers.

PC Gronow reiterated that any problems of hate crime ie racism and prejudice should be reported to the Police, as they took crimes such as this very seriously. Also, it sometimes led to victimisation and bullying, so therefore it was important to nip offences such as this in the bud. It was also about helping the perpetrator as well as the victim, as they could be educated to stop further offending, but of course if offending continued, the perpetrator could be prosecuted.

The Cabinet Member Adult Social Care and Health and Wellbeing, added that to date there had been 9 workshops for Show Racism the Red Card, and a total of 250 young people had attended these, with the last one being held tomorrow. An assessment of data and outcomes would be undertaken, to establish if these workshops had made a difference in terms of the perception of young people who had attended them, ie to what extent they had learned good practices from the sessions. It was important to educate people at a young age he added, before they went from primary onto secondary education.

A Member added that the perception of a lot of people was inaccurate when compared with reality. A considerable number of constituents within the County Borough, felt that there were a considerable number of immigrants living within the County Borough, when in fact this was not the case, as there was only 0.2% of people resident in Bridgend that were immigrants.

As this concluded debate on this item, the Chairperson thanked PC Gronow for attending the meeting and giving his submission.

RESOLVED:                    That the Cabinet Committee Equalities received and considered the report and accompanying Presentation.