New Louth Community Safety Partnership to hold first meeting by October

By Olivia Ryan, The Drogheda Independent

The first meeting of Louth’s new Local Community Safety Partnership (LCSP) is expected to be held by the beginning of October, it emerged this week.

Work on establishing the new forum, which will replace the former Joint Policing Committees, is continuing, councillors heard at the monthly meeting of Louth County Council.

Director of Service, Joanna Kelly, told the meeting that regulations governing the new Local Community Safety Partnerships came into effect on June 30, providing for the “establishment and resourcing” of LCSPs.

"We are awaiting guidelines from the department, final drafts have not been published yet,” said Ms. Kelly. She added that feedback from the department indicated there were over 300 comments made as part of consultation phase.

She explained the purpose of the LCSP model is to provide a “strong inter-agency collaboration” to enable “proactive dialogue” with the community.

"It is about providing a national community safety infrastructure,” said Ms. Kelly, adding that the aim will be to prioritise issues identified by the community, safety concerns, and to increase “community confidence in service providers.”

The meeting heard that the total membership of the LCSP in Louth cannot exceed 30 members, and that it would include seven elected representatives from Louth County Council, and representatives from other public bodies including An Garda Siochana, the HSE and Tusla. Council management will also be represented on the LCSP.

Ms. Kelly added that the Minister will announce appointments in September.

The terms of any appointment will be three years, and the minimum number of meetings to be held is six. the public will be entitled to attend one meeting each year, as will Oireachtas members.

She explained that the council will now need to establish how the seven elected members will be selected.

Cathaoirleach, Cllr. Sean Kelly said one of the proposals was for the chairpersons of all three Municipal districts to take a seat on the LCSP.

Cllr. Michelle Hall queried if it was a three year term for each appointment, could the roles be rotated when a new Cathaoirleach is elected each year, saying “that way we could nearly have all the members having a role at some stage.”

The Cathaoirleach said they would have to wait and see if the guidelines would allow these changes.