Cuts to the police keep coming as we face losing front counter
THE other week, in Bacup, I saw a police car parked up. My first thought was ‘Has something happened?’ Having seen nothing in the Free Press about that street since, my assumption is not.
It did, however, make me think about how life has changed in the last couple of decades. Twenty years ago, maybe even 10 years ago, police officers were a much more common sight on our streets.
Maybe just walking around a town centre or district, the local policeman was as much a part of local life as the local shopkeeper, lollipop lady or postman.
Through no fault of any individual officer working on the ground locally, we are now in danger of entering an age where you only deal with the police when something has gone wrong.
Over the last few years, we’ve lost police stations in all of our main towns in the Valley, plus the one in Ramsbottom. The police base in Waterfoot over time has become the only real police station in the Valley.
In more recent years, even officers based there have been beginning and ending their shifts at Burnley police station – one of many initiatives designed to try and cope with the heavy cuts being pushed on to Lancashire Police by the government.
And now we face the prospect of losing the front counter at Waterfoot police station.
It will likely go as part of the latest round of cost savings.
Rossendale isn’t alone here, this is an idea affecting police stations across Lancashire.
Lancashire Police is being hit with a double whammy. On one hand, the cuts keep coming – according to the county’s police and crime commissioner around £75m has been already saved by Lancashire Police since the cuts began in 2010.
Another £20m or so will need to be found over the next few years. The second blow involves the new things the police are expected to be involved in. These range from putting resources into things like anti-terrorism and cyber-crime – both huge, important issues but issues where pound notes from government are not keeping up with demand locally.
More locally, Lancashire Police is having to spend £100k a week policing the site of a proposed fracking project near Blackpool. This is where funding for police differs, from say funding for a council. Councils are highly unlikely to encounter a sudden additional ongoing, indefinite cost out of nowhere in the way the police are. Extra funding for this £100k a week cost doesn’t exist, so the police have to find the money from somewhere.
In this case, it could be through extra overtime, or through diverting officers from places like Rossendale to provide support. The government says the police have the resource they need to cope with the protests. The police and crime commissioner, Clive Grunshaw, says they do not.
On one hand, if the police can deliver those cuts and only now are we facing the prospect of losing a tangible service like a police front counter, maybe we aren’t doing too badly.
On the other, are we really happy with the idea of the police becoming increasingly remote from us? We have some excellent police officers and PCSOs in our force, and their hard work and dedication covers many of the cracks the funding cuts are causing.
But police data also suggests that 1,300 crimes committed here have gone unsolved, and we are suffering a spike in burglaries. Over time, this will lead to people feeling less safe in the Valley.
Rossendale MP Jake Berry is right when he says no changes to the police should be proposed or tolerated. It’s a message he needs to take back to the Home Office on behalf of the police as soon as possible.
The Scribbler’s views do not necessarily represent those of the Free Press. Let us know your views by emailing freepressnews@ menmedia.co.uk.