Letter to David Jones MP about police funding issues
The Old Colwyn (East) Residents’ Association
David Jones MP for West Clwyd
House of Commons
London
SW1A OAA
Concerns over funding issues with North Wales Police
The Committee of the association has asked me to write to you, as our Member of Parliament about concerns that the members have over police funding issues.
You are aware that this residents association recently wrote to the North Wales Chief Constable over the loss of our CBM Katherine Parmley, as one of 24 patrol officers redeployed to staff the Central Command and Control room at St Asaph.
Superintendent Kellaher of the Partnerships Department recently visited, as a result of our letter. The message received was that our CBM has gone for 18 months and will not return. The Government has cut funding to the force and as a result, 120 police civilian staff jobs have been cut before the new financial year and also the loss of 50 police officers posts has been achieved through natural wastage.
The force will recruit 99 new PCSOs to start in April. When pressed about the sustainability of these new posts at a recent Conwy County Council scrutiny committee, Mr Brunstrom said that he could not guarantee that the funding would be there next year to sustain those posts. Things could get worse, he said.
A constant theme each year from the Chief Constable is asking the public to pay more for local policing. Now through surveys he says that overwhelmingly people are happy to pay more for local policing and he is pressing for at least a 10% increase when the police authority meets to consider the police precept this month.
When pressed about management of budgetary matters, the Chief Constable proudly states that the Force has excellent grades from the HMI and the Auditor for business practices.
If he can shed 170 posts and take 24 officers off patrol duties to staff the control room, to balance the books, when he knew in 2006 / 07 what the funding criteria for 2007 / 08 would be, one could be forgiven for supposing that, he has previously overstretched his budget in one way or another so as to have achieved unsustainable manning levels.
However it could well be that the Chief Constable is managing his police force effectively and efficiently. If this is the case and the Government watchdogs all agree that systems within the force are working well, then the Government should support the management of the force to a realistic level. The Chief Constable should not have to go cap in hand to the people of North Wales asking for a precept increase of 10% in order to continue neighbourhood policing at anything like a realistic level.
Community policing in which North Wales was one of the leaders at the trial stage, now takes a much lower place on the Government agenda according to Mr Brunstrom at a recent scrutiny committee of the Conwy Council.
. He has been told that top of the list for HMIs inspections will be Protective Services ~ Terrorism ~ Serious Crime. The police will be assessed on those areas to a large extent. If the Home Office want extra services, it should pay extra for them such as staffing Holyhead Port.
Funding shortfalls from the Government are caused amongst other things by weighting towards the urban forces without making fair consideration of the specifics of the whole area of North Wales which has a mix of urban and rural together with a huge rise in summer population figures.
If, through inspection, the Government knows that North Wales is efficient and effective and making the best use of resources, then it should give realistic funding. It should not resort to raising indirect taxation by means of North Wales Police asking for a 10% hike in the precept in order to try and continue providing minimum services. Should it achieve the 10% it still faces capping.
If on the other hand the Government has assessed that North Wales police is not efficient and effective and is overstaffed then it should take the necessary corrective action.
Their present funding of the force, as it is reported by the police authority, is causing the public of North Wales anxiety about police staffing levels and no amount of reassuring words from Mr Brunstrom, the chair of the police authority, or Labour politicians is going to make that go away.
North Wales needs sufficient policing not cuts in services. Mr Brunstrom says that the removal of 24 officers from patrol duties to staff the control is necessary because of funding cuts. The public is suffering as a result. We are now told that Wards will have named CBMs who may have to cover more than one ward. That is not the community policing that we were asked to sign up to.
The rules are being changed to fit the funding gap, but as we have seen before, they rarely ever return to what they were before the changes. Far from being tough on crime, this Government behaviour is threatening to become a cause of future crime.
Please ensure that our point of view is brought to the attention of those in Government responsible for allocating realistic funding to the Police. This present situation is shameful.
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Letter sent to Alun Pugh AM and Brynle Williams AM
The Old Colwyn (East) Residents’ Association
(Brynle Williams AM) (Alun Pugh AM)
Member for North Wales Member for Clwyd West
National Assembly for Wales
Dear (Mr. Williams) (Mr. Pugh)
Concerns over funding issues with North Wales Police
The Committee of the association has asked me to write to you, as North Wales Member of the Welsh Assembly about concerns that our members have over police funding issues.
Our concerns from a Welsh Assembly perspective are as follows
Whilst we know that the Assembly does not have devolved responsibility for policing, we are aware that it can impact on three areas:
1. Setting a cap - we should not have to pay more than the inflation level
in our community tax - if the Authority increase the precept by 10% - local
communities probably won't see the benefit - part of it will be used to replenish
reserves, which we know are much diminished.
2. We are aware that Assembly members control grant/project money which can be made available to forces for 'community safety' work – perhaps more of this could come to North Wales to help our communities out with community policing.
3. Assembly members can and should in our view put pressure on MP's to persuade central government to pay more for policing services to give a realistic funding settlement to North Wales.
This residents association recently wrote to the North Wales Chief Constable over the loss of our CBM Katherine Parmley, as one of 24 patrol officers redeployed to staff the Central Command and Control room at St Asaph.
Superintendent Kellaher of the Partnerships Department recently visited, as a result of our letter. The message received was that our CBM has gone for 18 months and will not return. The Government has cut funding to the force and as a result, 120 police civilian staff jobs have been cut before the new financial year and also the loss of 50 police officers posts has been achieved through natural wastage.
The force will recruit 99 new PCSOs to start in April. When pressed about the sustainability of these new posts at a recent Conwy County Council scrutiny committee, Mr Brunstrom said that he could not guarantee that the funding would be there next year to sustain those posts. Things could get worse, he said.
A constant theme each year from the Chief Constable is asking the public to pay more for local policing. Now through surveys he says that overwhelmingly people are happy to pay more for local policing and he is pressing for at least a 10% increase when the police authority meets to consider the police precept this month.
When pressed about management of budgetary matters, the Chief Constable proudly states that the Force has excellent grades from the HMI and the Auditor for business practices.
If he can shed 170 posts and take 24 officers off patrol duties to staff the control room, to balance the books, when he knew in 2006 / 07 what the funding criteria for 2007 / 08 would be, one could be forgiven for supposing that, he has previously overstretched his budget in one way or another so as to have achieved unsustainable manning levels.
However it could be that the Chief Constable is managing his police force effectively and efficiently. If this is the case and the Government watchdogs all agree that systems within the force are working well, then the Central Government should support the management of the force to a realistic level. The Chief Constable should not have to go cap in hand to the people of North Wales asking for a precept increase of 10% in order to continue neighbourhood policing at anything like a realistic level.
Community policing in which North Wales was one of the leaders at the trial stage, now takes a much lower place on the Government agenda according to Mr Brunstrom at a recent scrutiny committee of the Conwy Council. He has been told that top of the list for HMIs inspections will be Protective Services ~ Terrorism ~ Serious Crime. The police will be assessed on those areas to a large extent. If the Home Office wants extra services, it should pay extra for them, for instance staffing Holyhead Port.
Funding shortfalls from the Government are caused amongst other things by weighting towards the urban forces without making fair consideration of the specifics of the whole area of North Wales which has a mix of urban and rural together with a huge rise in summer population figures.
If, through inspection, the Government knows that North Wales is efficient and effective and making the best use of resources, then it should give realistic funding. It should not resort to raising indirect taxation by means of North Wales Police asking for a 10% hike in the precept in order to try and continue providing minimum services.
If on the other hand the Government has assessed that North Wales police is not efficient and effective and is overstaffed then it should take the necessary corrective action.
Their present funding of the force, as it is reported by the police authority, is causing the public of North Wales anxiety about police staffing levels and no amount of reassuring words from Mr Brunstrom, the chair of the police authority, or Labour politicians is going to make that go away.
North Wales needs sufficient policing not cuts in services. Mr Brunstrom says that the removal of 24 officers from patrol duties to staff the control is necessary because of funding cuts. The public is suffering as a result. We are now told that Wards will have named CBMs who may have to cover more than one ward. That is not the community policing that we were asked to sign up to.
The rules are being changed to fit the funding gap, but as we have seen before, they rarely ever return to what they were before the changes. Far from being tough on crime, this behaviour over funding from Central Government is threatening to become a cause of future crime.
Please ensure that our point of view is considered by the Welsh Assembly and do all that you can to reverse the decline that we are seeing in Police funding and services and the extra pressure that is being forced towards local council tax payers from Central Government who are apparently treating the police force shamefully.