Smaller police budget needn’t mean worse service for public

Liberal Democrat Police & Crime Commissioner candidate Peter Andras has used a visit to Tyneside to highlight the need for collaboration between the police, local councils and voluntary organisations in fighting crime.

Liberal Democrat policy is to use proven methods such as restorative justice and community punishments as a way of reducing reoffending rates, and on Tuesday Peter said that if elected he would seek to work with external partners on such schemes, ensuring that planned reductions to policing budgets would not impact on outcomes for the public.

Peter said:

“Lib Dems in the North East have a very good track record of working with the police, both as individual councillors and in the cases of Newcastle and Northumberland as the people running those councils.

“In Newcastle, for example, a Lib Dem council was responsible for setting up Safe Neighbourhood Action and Problem Solving (SNAPS) groups. Made up of police, councillors, housing officers and other interested parties, these groups share data and agree collaborative action to deal with problems such as anti-social behaviour.

“By maintaining close contact with tenants and residents’ groups, and reporting to communities through local ward committees, the whole process gives communities a real say over how problems are dealt with.

“It also ensures communities have the confidence that the police and other agencies are working together. This cooperative approach has paid dividends, with the Cowgate programme helping to cut crime rates in half.

“In these tough economic times, when we know every penny of the policing budget needs to be spent wisely, working with external partners would help the public to get maximum value from their policing service while keeping costs down. Simply throwing money at problems and hoping they will disappear is not going to be good enough.”

Conservative Europhobia could hit Northumbria police’s ability to do their job

In this increasingly smaller world, where international criminals can use a variety of electronic technologies to evade and stay one step ahead of the law, European cooperation on issues of law and order is vital if the continent’s worst criminals are to be brought to justice.

We saw the benefits of close cooperation with our European partners just last year, with one drugs gang ringleader, Edward Morton, being jailed for 24 years thanks to Dutch and English police authorities working together and pooling their resources. This helped to prevent millions of pounds worth of hard drugs ending up on the streets of the North East.

Unfortunately, 102 Conservative MPs recently signed a letter opposing European legislation which enables UK police to cooperate with their European colleagues. The one Conservative MP in the Northumbria force area, Guy Opperman, is now a member of the government as the aide to immigration minister Damian Green.

My question to Mr Opperman, and to Conservative PCC candidate Phil Butler, is as follows: Will you stand up to the Europhobes in your own party who would seek to seriously damage our country’s ability to bring dangerous criminals like Edward Morton to justice? Or will you allow narrow-minded dogma to hit the ability of forces like Northumbria to do their jobs effectively?

Labour PCC candidate Baird slammed for debate conduct

Labour’s candidate to become the elected Police & Crime Commissioner for Northumbria, Vera Baird, has been slammed for acting in a ‘rude and disrespectful’ manner towards a fellow participant in a campaign debate.

The comments follow a debate on LGBT issues at which Jonathan Wallace, a longstanding Liberal Democrat councillor and campaigner in Gateshead, represented the party’s PCC candidate, Newcastle councillor Peter Andras.

Each member of the panel was invited to give a 5 minute opening statement but whilst Jonathan Wallace was speaking, Vera Baird attempted to shout him down. Then whilst answering a question, Baird loudly interrupted him even though he had the microphone. Jonathan had to abandon answering the question but managed to suggest that Baird should allow people other than herself to answer questions from the audience.

When Jonathan wished her luck following the debate, Baird would only respond with a curt ‘whatever’.

Following the debate, Jonathan said:

“That sort of conduct might be acceptable on the floor of the House of Commons but I don’t think it’s how people would want or expect their Police & Crime Commissioner to act.

“Instead of engaging constructively with people who have different views and approaches, as we Liberal Democrats have always sought to do, it seems Vera Baird would rather bully them into silence. I hope she wouldn't behave in the same way towards a member of the public who disagreed with her work as PCC."

On hearing of Vera Baird’s aggression towards a key member of his campaign team, Peter Andras commented:

“I am disappointed to hear that Vera Baird has treated Jonathan in this sort of dismissive and discourteous manner. Whatever the differences between our parties’ views on policing issues, everyone deserves the right to have their say and make their positions clear during debates like Monday’s.

“I have known Jonathan for a number of years and know him to be a decent man with a wide-ranging knowledge of both LGBT and policing issues, which is why he was the perfect person to take part in that particular debate.

“I hope Ms Baird will rethink her approach and will in future conduct herself in a more respectful manner.”

Baird must come clean on confused anti-cuts message

Liberal Democrat Police & Crime Commissioner candidate Peter Andras has called on Vera Baird, his Labour opponent, to spell out exactly how she will carry out her stated intention to use her position to ‘fight the Tory cuts’ to policing.

Peter’s comments follow an interview given by shadow Chancellor Ed Balls at his party’s autumn conference in which he stated “I can make no commitment now to reverse any of those cuts”. Ms Baird has pledged, if elected, to maintain Police & Community Service Officer (PCSO) numbers and increase the numbers of police officers.

Peter said:

“There are a number of questions that the Labour candidate for this position needs to answer, because at the moment there is a lot of confusion being caused by differences in what she is saying here in the North East and what her party is saying to people nationally."

“Is the Labour candidate in line with her party? How is she going to resolve the contradiction between her personal position and the position of her party? It would seem to me to be more honest to stand as an independent and allow a Labour candidate whose views are more representative of those of the party at large to stand for the party.”

“I have clearly stated that I want to see the fullest possible protection of frontline policing services for the people living in the Northumbria force area. But I am realistic – there will be cuts to budgets and savings will have to be made. “

“To fulfil her promise, the Labour candidate would likely need to hike up the Council Tax precept charged for policing services, at a time when families’ budgets are already stretched. I’m not sure people will be willing to pay extra for their policing services just so the Labour Party can attack the government."

"At present, PCSOs are funded centrally by the Home Office. However, that central funding is about to end, meaning that the only place funding for PCSOs can come from is Council Tax payers."

"In practice, maintaining PCSO numbers in Northumbria would cost an extra £5.5m, equivalent to an estimated 15% rise in the Council Tax precept. In addition, as PCSOs are not spread evenly but the Council Tax precept is, residents of rural Northumberland and rural parts of Gateshead would in effect be asked to pay extra to subsidise urban policing."

Lib Dem PCC candidate tours Northumberland towns

Liberal Democrat Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate Peter Andras has been on a tour of towns in Northumberland to talk with local residents about their policing needs and priorities.

Peter Andras visited a total of eight towns across the county, stretching from Berwick-upon-Tweed in the north to Blyth in the south. In each town he visited, Peter met with local County and Town Councillors, campaigners and members of the public to find out what he, as their elected PCC, could do to improve the policing service they receive.

Peter said:

“It was very helpful to meet with elected Councillors, campaigners and members of the public in communities up and down Northumberland."

“The point of the elected PCC, which both the Labour
and Tory candidates have not seemed to grasp, is to act as a bridge between the police and the communities they serve – not to try to organise how the police works, by kind-of aiming to be between the Chief Constable and the police. In order to do this job effectively, it is vital that the winning candidate listens to people across the Northumbria area. It is also very important to aim to make possible the improved democratic scrutiny of the police by gathering sufficiently detailed information about the police, channeling this to local communities, and fully supporting the scrutiny of the PCC and the police by the Police and Crime Panel."

“Berwick being the northernmost corner of Northumberland, it was the perfect town in which to start my fact-finding tour. I wanted to reassure the people of North Northumberland, and indeed the rest of the county, that a Liberal Democrat Police and Crime Commissioner would not neglect their policing needs.”

Peter Andras has made maintaining the balance between
rural and urban policing a key plank of his campaign,
warning that any interference leading to an imbalance
could have a serious knock-on effect for thosecommunities which see their resources cut or diverted elsewhere.

In addition, he is calling for policing priorities to reflect those set out by the public served by the police, and not to be dictated by a political  agenda or ideology.