Cheshire East councillors are being urged to oppose plans by Cheshire Police Chief Constable which could see up to 60 of the county’s 87 PCSOs axed, writes Belinda Ryan.
The force launched an internal consultation last month to save £13 million over the next four years through reducing PCSOs (police community support officers) and redistributing warranted police officers into neighbourhood policing teams.
Cllr Janet Clowes, pictured, (Wybunbury, Con) and Cllr Julie Smith (Handforth, non-grouped) have submitted a notice of motion to Wednesday’s meeting of the full council calling on the authority to urge Chief Constable Mark Roberts and Police and Crime Commissioner Dan Price to reconsider the decision.
They say the controversial proposal contradicts the government’s own recommended protocol for the implementation of the neighbourhood policing guarantee problem statement, which refers to additional neighbourhood officers and PCSOs.
The two councillors state, in the motion: “In light of the current legislation that demands an increase in the numbers of both warranted police officers and PCSOs on the streets of our neighbourhoods, the proposed actions of both the chief constable and the police and crime commissioner are counter intuitive.”
And they want the council to put a number of questions to the chief constable including whether the loss of ‘the invaluable local community knowledge, acquired and shared over many years by Cheshire’s PCSOs’, has been accounted for in implementing the NPG model.
At that meeting, Mr Price said the number of officers in neighbourhood policing in Cheshire was going to increase from 251 to 327.
He told the panel: “The precise number of PCSOs as part of that mix is yet to be decided, but I must reassure panel members and residents that I am committed to delivering my promise, as set out in the police and crime plan, of ensuring a named PC or PCSO for every ward in Cheshire.
“I want to be clear, we are increasing the size of neighbourhood policing in Cheshire.
“I am holding the chief constable to account in this area and will continue to scrutinise how community policing is delivered.”
Mr Price stressed to panel members that the chief constable has operational independence.
The motion from the two Cheshire East councillors will be presented to this week’s meeting of the full council which takes place at 11am on Wednesday, December 10, at Tatton Park.
The proposed actions of both the chief constable and the police and crime commissioner might well be counter intuitive, but perhaps they simply understand how best to do their jobs – especially given the fact that Cheshire East Council are effectively broke and can’t pay for the policing they get, far less pay any more.
They can demand all they want but it’s a fact that police officer numbers need to increase by 12,000 just to bring policing ratios back to 2010 levels.
Add to that the fact that attrition rates – numbers of officers leaving other than on retirement or illness – have reached historically unprecedented levels and it’s a given that PCSOs move from desirable to unaffordable.