Three days remaining to support our Police and Crime Commissioner

Tim Passmore, our PCC

Cuts that have been made to funding of the Police Service in recent times have had an obvious and damaging effect,   Time was when Parish Councils recieved the assurance of a visit from their local PCSO at parish council meetings, for example, but this is no longer the case.   I understand that these very valuable officers only now work during the daytime.  There also seems to have been an exponential increase in house burglaries in rural areas, and many routine road traffic offences such as speeding and HGV weight restrictions are rarely enforced.

Our Police and Crime Commissioner, Tim Passmore, is asking for public support in his attempt to obtain a fairer funding deal for Suffolk from central Government, and there is just 3 days to take action.

I set out his e mail to all interested parties below. Do take action if you can!

Tim writes:-

 As your Police and Crime Commissioner it’s my job to ensure you as a Suffolk taxpayer gets the very best value for money for policing in the county. At the moment I don’t believe we get a reasonable share of funding so I am launching this campaign to get public support to make a case to Government for a fairer settlement.

 I welcome a fundamental review of the funding formula by the Policing Minister, Brandon Lewis, as it provides me with this opportunity to lobby for a formula which is readily understandable, transparent and provides a fairer funding settlement for Suffolk.

 But I need your help, I’d like you, to go to www.suffolk-pcc.gov.uk to read my assessment and, if you agree, to show your support by emailing  fairshareforsuffolk@suffolk.pnn.police.uk  by Friday 20^th January . Any additional comments that anyone wishes to make can be added to this email.  I  will use these public responses as evidence to lobby the Minister for a fairer deal for Suffolk.

I think Suffolk should get a more equitable settlement, which reflects the challenges the county faces.  Whilst I recognise that fairness should take account of specific factors that will be common across all policing areas, I think the rural nature of Suffolk should be given proper weighting and the challenge of policing individual communities over a large geographic expanse should be considered when levels of funding are agreed.

 Suffolk is home to one of the largest container ports in Europe, has a coast line of over 60 miles, we have five military establishments including two American airbases, the county is home to a nuclear power station and the A14 is a major route of national importance – my concern is that the Government does not recognise the significance of these crucial strategic national assets and the impact it has on our police service.

 If we compare ourselves to one of our closest neighbours, we would receive around £3m more Home Office grant funding every year if it was funded to the same level as Norfolk (using unweighted population as the basis of the calculation).  This is just not fair; £3million is a huge disparity between two quite similar counties.

 Suffolk has a reputation of being a very prosperous county, and while there some very affluent areas, over 83,000 people in the county live in income deprivation at the most minimal standard provided by welfare benefits, that’s over 10% of the population.   The recently published ‘Hidden Needs’ research makes pretty sober reading; the first report was written five years ago and sadly deprivation levels have increased right across the county since then. Sadly, where there are higher levels of economic and social deprivation, communities suffer from increased levels of crime, anti-social behaviour, addiction and abuse, which provides resourcing challenges for the Constabulary which are not considered in the current formula.

To support my call for a fairer share for Suffolk please go to www.suffolk-pcc.gov.uk to read my assessment and then e-mail fairshareforsuffolk@suffolk.pnn.police.uk  by Friday 20^th January.

Kind regards

Tim Passmore 

Suffolk Police & Crime Commissioner

Police Headquarters

Martlesham Heath

IPSWICH  IP5 3QS

Tel: 01473 613614

Mob: 07725 085604

tim.passmore@suffolk.pnn.police.uk