Call for more police on streets of Telford

Telford & Wrekin Council has voted to back a Labour motion calling for fairer funding for the police, after Councillor Richard Overton said the people of the borough "deserve better".

Conservative opposition councillors also backed the motion, but welcomed moves from Police & Crime Commissioner John Campion to bring in 215 new officers, some of whom will be taken on over the coming year.

It comes after a survey earlier this month found that 88 per cent of West Mercia Police officers feel that there are not enough of them to do their job properly.

Councillor Overton said the force had lost 300 officers since 2010, and described cuts to funding as an insult to the police and the public.

He told the members that crime has increased by 35 per cent in Telford & Wrekin since 2010, and said that while the police were doing an excellent job with their resources, they need more help.

He said: "Cuts to policing are making an impact. Fewer visible officers means people's fear of crime is increasing.

"What is most stark about the situation is the problems are clearly a result of not having the staff to deal with the demand."

He added: "The people of our borough deserve better, they deserve to be protected and to know that crime does not pay. Currently officers are doing their best to keep people safe but they are having to do more with less."

Concern

Councillor Overton also welcomed the arrival of new officers to the force but raised concern that none will be based in Telford.

He also highlighted the fact that they are being paid for through an increase in people's council tax bills.

He said: "The only way to pay for more policing is through an increase in council tax.

"We need the sustained and large scale recruitment of police officers. People know there are simply too few officers to meet too high a demand."

Conservative leader Andrew Eade said that even without new officers specifically for Telford, the recruitment would help the town's police.

He said: "The borough has been pretty well protected from staffing reductions in recent years, as a result Telford officers have been required to support other parts of the force, particularly in Shropshire.

"With Shropshire officers now being reinstated, Telford will be able to retain its police officers."

The opposition leader did agree to back the motion, saying: "We do support additional funding for the police force so we will support the motion on that basis and that basis alone."

Speaking ahead of the meeting Mr Campion said he had worked to increase the number of frontline police since he came to power.

He said: "Since my election in 2016, I have overseen an £18m increase in West Mercia’s policing budget, and the addition of another 215 police officer posts in our communities.

"I have simultaneously ensured a far greater percentage of public money is going directly into frontline policing, and delivered the lowest council tax increases in England in all three of my budgets.

"Recorded crime in West Mercia has also fallen in the last 12 months by more than two per cent, bucking the national trend.”

One in six officers lost over 10 years

West Mercia has lost one in six police officers over the last decade, according to new figures.

The latest Home Office data shows that West Mercia Police had 1,922 officers in September, 95 fewer than they had a year earlier.

And the number of officers is significantly down on where it was in September 2010, when there were 2,303 – meaning a drop of 17 per cent in eight years.

Over the same period, the number of crimes recorded by police has increased significantly. In the 12 months to September 2010, 70,587 crimes were recorded by West Mercia Police – a figure that rose to 85,400 in the year to September, an increase of 21 per cent.

The number of violent crimes recorded rose markedly, more than doubling over the period. In total, 28,511 violent crimes were recorded in West Mercia last year.

Across England and Wales’s 43 police forces, the number of officers has dropped by 14 per cenr since September 2010. There were 122,000 last year, according to official figures.

Police Federation chair John Apter said: “Society just isn’t as safe as it once was. We are swimming against the tide and it is the public who are being let down."