Bolsover District Council endorses new security plans for its headquarters, offices and leisure facility after incidents

Bolsover District Council’s Local Growth Scrutiny and Customer Services Scrutiny committees undertook a joint review of security arrangements at The Arc, on High Street, in Clowne, as part of the authority’s 2024- 25 Work Programme to examine how security can be improved.

The council’s Arc not only hosts the authority’s offices and council chamber but also manages and provides leisure and health facilities for the public with its Go Active Clowne hub for adults and youngsters including a swimming pool, gym, exercise classes and a soft play area for kids.

A council spokesperson stated: “The review had been initiated in response to growing concerns about the security of The Arc, Clowne, its vulnerability to incidents of Anti-social Behaviour and the potential critical risks that could threaten the safety of staff, members of the public, and elected members.

“With a focus on improving the safety, resilience and preparedness of The Arc, Clowne, the review had aimed to identify existing weaknesses, explore legislative compliance, and make recommendations that would ensure the facility remained a safe environment for all users.”

The council received a series of suspicious packages in 2024, suffered a series of break-ins in August, 2023, and recorded an incident where children sprayed a council manager in the face with deodorant outside the Bolsover Contact Centre in September, 2024, according to the review’s report.

It also highlighted how a fire alarm call point was damaged by children in September, 2023, a false fire alarm was triggered in May, 2023, when children activated a break-glass call point, and there had been an incident of anti-social behaviour when a woman and a man were seen arguing.

Concerns have also been raised after several incidents in the council chamber during the beginning of 2025 where members of the public allegedly caused disturbances to committee meetings so the council has been considering safeguards for meetings such as barriers, codes of conduct and camera monitoring.

The review identified needs for an official to oversee security, a comprehensive security policy, clearer incident response roles, regular reviews or testing of procedures and training for staff and it also stated that consideration should be given to CCTV and perimeter security as well as for committee meetings.

It found that a Counter Terrorism Security Advisor had provided valuable feedback and that councillors had received a security briefing and that an accommodation review of the building is being developed.

However, despite ‘invacuation’ plans which provide safe internal areas during incidents, and evacuation and lockdown plans being drafted these had not yet been fully implemented, according to the review, and it advised that security measures should be continuously updated to address emerging threats.

Following the Joint Committee’s meeting on June 12, it endorsed recommendations including: Appointing a senior officer for security and assigning security to a Cabinet member; Developing a comprehensive security policy for The Arc; Ensuring clear security roles and responsibilities for incidents; Ensuring security procedures are reviewed, updated and tested; Exploring options to develop improved CCTV and monitoring systems; Strengthening perimeter security; Addressing security arrangements for committee meetings; And conducting a security audit with a Counter Terrorism Security Advisor.

Other endorsed recommendations included ensuring staff and councillors are familiar with emergency procedures developed to address responses to ‘marauding attackers’, bomb threats and suspicious packages and that staff training is provided for conflict management and emergency situations.

In addition a review and update of panic button procedures has been recommended with Security Industry Authority training for appropriate members of staff such as the leisure duty managers and the enforcement officers.

A council spokesperson stated: “The Assistant Director for Streetscene, Community Safety and Enforcement explained further that measures put in place including the council chamber partition and the enforcement of wearing of visitor lanyards had made a recognisable difference and that it was important to not dissuade attendance of public meetings.

“The Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing stated committee chairs might benefit from additional training on handling specific situations related to meetings including dealing with difficult people and situations.”

The spokesperson added: “The Portfolio Holder for Health and Wellbeing added that all committee chairs could halt meetings at any point to address disturbances or potential security risks – if necessary they should make full use of this responsibility.”

The Joint Committee endorsed the recommendations and agreed to submit a report to the council’s Executive for approval and it resolved that the recommendations, subject to approval, should be monitored over a year with reports as well as an update at the end of the monitoring period.