Old Colwyn East Residents’ Association 30th March 2009
No grouse for the Chief Constable
Old Colwyn East Residents’ Association has concerns over comments made by the Chief Constable.
Please read a Daily Post report of a police authority meeting
Richard Brunstrom has no time to listen to people who attend Police Authority consultation meetings in their own time. They are not “real people” he intimated.
At an open Police Authority meeting on the 20th March 2009, our Chief Constable told the world that the 97 people who attended Police Authority consultation meetings across North Wales in January were not “real people” and were not representative of the majority view.
The last series of consultation meetings was to discuss an issue which worries the Police Authority; recorded crime they say is going down but there is a far too high fear of crime.
In preparation for one of the consultation meetings, the Old Colwyn East Residents Association discussed the issue and before the meeting, wrote a letter to the Police Authority about a more general fear of criminal behaviour rather than the narrow view taken by the police force. It asked for its views to be taken into account in the debate.
Please read the letter and subsequent replies which can be accessed via links on the page CLICK TO VIEW
On Friday, the Chief Constable dismissed the letter amongst all the other submissions at the meetings as a “grouse”, unrepresentative of the thoughts of the wider community.
Strangely, on November 13th 2006, the Chief Constable wrote a blog on the police website praising the Residents’ Association in Old Colwyn for its work quote “There is an extremely active and very committed Residents’ Association who deserve great praise. They have campaigned tirelessly for the area and they now have quite a lot to show for it, and to be proud of”.
Read his blog at http://www.north-
Mr Brunstrom cannot have it both ways, the Association is either representative of public opinion in the area or it is not. If it is, then the Police Authority and the force should have wide enough shoulders to take on board what the Association has to say.
When does a valid and democratically expressed point of view become a grouse to be dismissed? The answer is of course when it does not accord with what the North Wales Chief Constable, Richard Brunstrom thinks.
David Curtis
Secretary
