StoreWatch
Meeting July 15th at Westfield Conference room
Those Attending:
Craig Roberts Sports Direct
Rich Sexton TKMaxx
Rich Barratt DCC Market
Sulayman Cham Boots Westfield
Jean Ramsden The Space
Jane Alti The Space
Jane Phillpot Cancer Research
Martin Burgess Westfield Security
Mick Carson Chairman
Cathedral Quarter Gabriell Chesterman
Wayne Austin Westfield VSG
Gary Summerfield Training Manager
Dave Simmonds City Centre Sergeant
Bert Mason Treasurer
Mick Carson addressed the meeting and thanked everybody for the turnout.
Item one:
Subscriptions, Bert Mason advised that all but three stores have now paid up, and was reluctant to stun the radios as they were still in use – we have probably spent in excess of twenty pounds trying to recover these debts.
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Proposals from CCM for an enhanced system. BM explained that since January this year there had been considerable interest in the StoreWatch system from the City Centre Management.
CCM Minutes 21.01.08 – Quotes
“Concern
expressed at perceived value for money £20 pa charge”
“Radios should be
hired not purchased”
“Retailers having
problems getting support from Head Office to continue with scheme as it is not
perceived as good value for money to some other schemes”
BM: Who was it that perceived it was not good value?
BM: Stores have a choice.
1 Purchase a radio locally from MEL
2 Hire a radio from MEL
3 Buy a radio that conforms to the system from any other supplier
“Consideration should be given to subcontracting out the radio hire and adding an admin fee on top”
It was then decided by the CCM committee in March to carry out an audit of StoreWatch users:
CCM Minutes 27.03.08 – Quotes
“I suggest that as soon as Ian Hinds has completed the audit of how the existing radios are managed by their users, we meet to discuss what we want from a radio system…..”
CCM Minutes 28.04.08 – Quotes
Ian Hinds presents his Audit of stores:
48 stores visited
“17 appeared to have a problem.”
BM: subsequently visited 8 of the 17 the stores with “problems” and the vast majority worked perfectly, and the managers could not recall a visit from CCM.
24.05.08 BM & GS had a meeting with James Bancroft (Administrator) of Citywatch Leicester to find out more about their crime prevention system.
James explained the mechanics of the system and how stores could receive information via a computer system, the radios were built into the annual subscription price. Plus points were exclusion orders on a store or centre basis, training, etc. On the minus side the cost per store is £566.00 pa
It was suggested at a subsequent StoreWatch committee meeting that StoreWatch should stay as it is, and if the CCM wanted this form of information sharing (as per the Les Hall scheme) they should go for it themselves.
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Information Sharing.
Gary Summerfield described how photos were now being made available by the Police. This combined with Westfield’s own gallery and photos provided by the stores themselves, makes for an impressive collection of known criminals.
Gary has made available the opportunity for any StoreWatch member to visit the control room to view these photos – times to be between 9am and 6pm.
I understand a similar arrangement for viewing photos can be made at CCM Irongate, on Telephone No. 419050.
The question was asked if photo albums could be lodged with several key stores as per a scheme some years ago with DARCI – the answer was NO due to Data Protection, Civil Liberties, etc.
A.O.B.
The question was asked, “What time would be best for these meetings” and there did not appear to be any preferred time
Sergeant D Simmonds: indicated that there was a large amount of “bag dipping” at present, mostly centred on shoe shops and restaurants, and areas where people put their bags on the floor.
Bert Mason 16th July 2008