Agenda item

Officers from Mediation Services are attending the Board to give their views and also have a discussion with the Board matters relating to the current inquiry.

The Chair asked about mediation. BWA explained this has been carried out within Housing Leeds since January. Mediation is very effective providing both parties engage, with a 96% success rate, however this must be held in context that 2/3rds of cases refuse to engage in mediation. The Chair asked if certain age groups have better success with mediation than others? BWA noted those in their 20s and over 50s don’t seem to engage. BWA explained that mediation does not seek to arbitrate on cases and who is right or wrong. The mediation workload comes 2/3 from LASBT and 1/3 Housing Officers. BWA noted mediation is not considered where the case has criminality.

BWA explained often a mediation case will be about gardens but often it is something more underlying which is discovered through the process. Mediation ends with a formal written agreement. The Chair in what venue does mediation occur? BWA explained normally this is at Council offices but arrangements can be made for alternative venues if appropriate, but if there is no good reason and parties to mediation don’t want to come into the central Leeds office then it can be a sign that mediation will not work. A question was asked if mediation is only for Council tenants and what happens if the dispute is between a Council tenant and a private tenant. BWA explained they would still take this on.

The Chair asked if mediation is ever carried out for noise cases given this makes up 50% of cases? BWA explained yes but as explained previously, often there are a number of issues which come out during mediation so it is not solely about noise. The Chair asked if more mediation would help prevent ASB in future? BWA explained this is difficult to say, it wouldn’t prevent things like hate crime because this is above the threshold for mediation.

A question following on from this was asked about hate crime and if this had increased since the referendum to leave the European Union. MP explained that there has been some increase since the vote took place, and it was explained that often people do not know how to report this to authorities.

The Chair asked about begging and how it is dealt with and what advice you give people when coming into contact with beggars. MP gave an example of a case she was involved with of an incident of begging in St James Hospital car park, which given its location could be very distressing. The Chair asked how this was dealt with. MP explained the hospital has its own PCSO, who initially tried to dissuade people from giving money. However, given there were so many calls about this begging and its aggressive nature, the Police gathered statements from victims and the Council applied for an injunction.

In closing the discussion the Chair asked how, if they could change something to help them their job better.

BWA explained that more work on tenants who are signing up for a property to be ‘tenancy ready’ could help prevent problems in the future.

ZB noted that costs for fibre connections for CCTV cameras is expensive and work to help reduce this would realise savings. This could be done by utilising MSFs and radio frequencies from tower blocks instead of fibre.