My week ahead, 9 - 15 March 2015

Monday 9 March, 4pm Culture portfolio meeting, Crown Pools
6pm – Labour Group campaigning

Wednesday 11 March, Visit to local military unit

Thursday 12 March, 6pm – Culture Working Group

Friday 13 March, 7pm – St Helen’s School PTA Quiz

Saturday 14 March, 10am – Labour Campaigning – NE Ipswich

Sunday 15 March, 11am – Labour Campaigning – NW Ipswich

Two weeks ago we were informed by the Tory Police and Crime Commissioner for Suffolk that over 60 front line police posts are to go in the county and this week at the North East Area Committee we found out how it would impact on our own Safer Neighbourhood team and it is not good news.

We are losing one front line policeman and that is on top of the local inspector holding two jobs, the continuing use of secondments from the SNT to other posts. The Tory Crime Commissioner promised to keep SNT’s in the town and some could say he has fulfilled that promise but we also found out on Thursday that on paper it may seem we keeping our North East SNT but in reality operationally they have been merged with the South East SNT.

Our SNT do a great job, in particular combating anti social behaviour in the area and more importantly participating in project that want to help keep our young residents away from crime. This job has now been made much harder by Tory cuts.

So much for them being the so called Party of ‘Law and order’ – no wonder the local Tory councillors kept their eyes focused on their committee papers when the police spoke about the cuts. Embarrassed?

Last week was a great one for campaigning, but the Tories were also out in large numbers - Reputedly they spent most of their time looking for missing Ipswich Tory councillors!

Time for Labour to say they will scrap Police and Crime Commissioners

Over the last few months the position of Police and Crime Commissioner has sunk to a new low. The low turnout for the election in the West Midlands, the refusal of the South Yorkshire PCC to resign over his involvement with the Rotherham scandal (though in that case he should be joined in resigning by a number of South Yorkshire Senior Police Officers) the suspension from the Labour Party of the Bedfordshire PCC, the Norfolk PCC attempting to suspend himself and the walking PR disasters who are the PCC’s in Kent and Surrey. All these are recent examples of why the next Labour Government should make one of their first jobs stating that the post of PCC will cease after they have completed their four year term.

That is not to say we should go back to the way the police was run before, the Police Authority were toothless and though they were made up of elected members they were able to raise the police part of the council tax without any fear of being held responsible for the rise by the public.

This week Labour have announced that they are close to laying out plans for their vision of what will replace the role of PCC. Tories not surprisingly are pushing us to declare now what we plan, forgetting that they had plenty of time in opposition to come up with their answers. The trouble was they decided on the role of PCC, they had plenty of time to decide on legislation and implementation but still came up with (supported by the Lib Dems) a plan that allows a PCC to stay in post even if found guilty for a criminal offence (as long as the crime does not lead to a 2 year jail sentence) they also failed to place in any form of recall or even to give the Home Secretary (or the local Police panel) the power to get rid of poorly preforming PCC’s. Then again they have failed to implement a plan for recall of MP’s though they had promised to do so. This week The Home Secretary said there should be a way that they could recall PCC’s – well pity she never thought of that when they set up the post.

The local political gossip column has reported a number of my tweets and posts about the role of the PCC and attempted to use those posts to cause friction with my fellow ward Councillor Tracy Grant (a civilian employed by the police). Stating that at least the Tory PCC, Mr Passmore had saved the Suffolk Control room. As I was a member of the scrutiny committee who listened to Mr Passmore who when speaking to us made it quite clear that at the time he thought the control room merger was in the best interests of Suffolk, I do not take what he says that seriously because it seemed to me that the closure was a ‘done’ deal and that only the threat of an orchestrated campaign by the EASDT pushed him into a sudden change of plan (where he had no Plan B.)

What Ipswich Spy seems to fail to report is other than the control room, most of the police force in both Suffolk and Norfolk has already merged, just a few days after attacking me ‘Spy’ ran another story about Suffolk Police in which they themselves quoted, Chief Inspector Chris Spinks, head of the Norfolk and Suffolk Roads Policing Unit. Just another example how much of the two police forces are already merged. Some could say that the only parts of the police that both Suffolk and Norfolk still have that are not merged are the posts of PCC, Chief Constable and the two control centres!

Now I am not advocating the merger of the control rooms, as someone who ran the Operations Room in Sangin in 2009 I do have some understanding of how a control room works. In Sangin I ran a control room that controlled over 1000 troops but underneath us we had 5 other control rooms including 2 in the same location as us. We then reported up to a further control/Operations Room in Lashkagar who then reported up to three separate Operation Rooms in Kadahar, Kabul and West London! I could envisage a full merger of Suffolk and Norfolk police still needing more than one control room – maybe one in Ipswich, one in Waveney covering both Lowestoft and Yarmouth and then a further one in Kings Lynn all reporting into a joint control room in Norwich.

I do wish that the last Labour Government had implemented the plan that Ronnie Flanagan devised which would have seen forces merger, it may have been the opposition of the police themselves that had stopped Labour from pressing forward. But it seems even the police have now changed their thoughts - The number of constabularies in England and Wales should be cut to save money that was the view of Police Superintendents' Association president Irene Curtis who went onto say there were "too many chief constables and too many police and crime commissioners". And that the 43-force structure wasted millions of pounds and had not been reformed for 40 years.

But one starting figure last week did indicate how badly we were being served by the Suffolk Police, as we have many of the police departments already merged you would have thought Suffolk and Norfolk residents would have been treated equally but in Norfolk police attended 98% of recorded crimes in the year to November 2013 but Suffolk police attended just 66% - below the average of 79% across England and Wales. So we are not being treated the same even though a number of our senior officers are running joint Suffolk and Norfolk teams.

Mr Passmore has done some good work with the police as part of his role as PCC and has not seen to have made the same mistakes as some of the other PCC’s but he has made some serious errors. One was remaining as a District Councilor in Mid Suffolk, this error was highlighted this week when he was critical of Suffolk Police for not commenting on a licensing proposal that Mid Suffolk had asked the police to comment on. Now I understand where Mr Passmore is coming from, I have been critical of the police at both planning and licensing committees for not submitting anything when asked for their thoughts but the difference is I am not the PCC. What will happen the next time Mid Suffolk ask the police to submit evidence on a licensing application- it would seem to be that Mr Passmore publically being critical of the police this time will put undue pressure on them to say something next time.

I will iterate my view that the next Labour Government should get rid of the post of PCC, but replace it with something better and more accountable than the previous Police Authority. I would go further and state that forces should be merged. The situation in Suffolk and Norfolk already highlights that in most cases the forces are already working as one even if one county seems to be getting a better service. NHS organisation never seems to get a good press but having a health authority that controlled the health service in both Lowestoft and Yarmouth was one good idea. A merger of Suffolk, Norfolk and maybe Cambridgeshire would not have to cause control rooms to close- but it would make more sense (in solving crime and serving the public) if a control room in Cambridge also looked after Haverhill and Newmarket.

Then we have cost – Police cost should be removed from Council tax – it should be from direct government with a set figure worked out by the Home office. Not sure many MPs would be happy about that!

My week ahead - 25 - 30 August 2014

Tuesday – 26 August, 2pm – Labour campaigning in NE Ipswich
5pm – Culture Portfolio meeting
6pm – Labour Group meeting

Thursday – 28 August, 10am Labour campaigning in SW Ipswich

Saturday – 30 August, 10am – Labour campaigning in South East Ipswich

Sunday – 24 August, 10am – Labour campaigning in South West Ipswich

Another week of campaigning planned as we continue to ‘raise our game’ as we head towards the next General Election.

We are now also beginning to see the national party release details of policies that will be part of our manifesto. I hope that we make an announcement quite soon that we will be getting rid of the post of Police and Crime Commissioner. The poor turnout at last week’s election for the West Midlands PCC was yet another example of public apathy over the role. What was more shocking is that the cost of the by-election was in in the region of £3.5 million!

The whole concept of PCC was rushed through, no thought was given to how do you replace a PCC mid - term or as in the case in Norfolk if the PCC finds himself suspended.

I do not think we should go back to the old Police Authority model but I hope the cost of and the poor turnout at the PCC election last week will convince the Shadow Home Office team that we need to be quite radical in our proposals of how our police force is run. Possibly using some of the ideas that were suggested by Ronnie Flanagan (former Head of the RUC) when he produced a report for the last Labour Government.

Our own Suffolk PCC can then concentrate on his ‘other’ job – a councillor on Mid Suffolk District Council.

My week ahead, 17 - 23 March 2014

Monday – 17 March, 6pm Labour Group

Tuesday – 18 March, 5pm Sidegate Primary School Finance meeting
6pm East Area Housing Panel

Wednesday – 19 March, 6pm Ipswich Borough Council – Full Council meeting, Town Hall

Saturday 22 March, 10am – Labour campaigning – South East Ipswich

This week we have seen Mr Gummer our MP visit the Suffolk Police Control room – expect to see in the paper soon ‘Suffolk Police Control room saved after Tory PCC is lobbied by Tory MP Gummer’ – similar to ‘Bishop Hill lights will not now happen after Tory cabinet member is lobbied by Tory MP Gummer’

Now I am sure that lobbying by Ben Gummer and Tory Cllrs did help persuade Graham Newman to shelve the plan to put traffic lights on Bishops Hill but I have no doubt from meetings held with Mr Newman that he still thinks lights should be placed on the approach from Felixstowe Rd, but has been persuaded to halt the work as it is seen as a vote loser in the marginal ward of Holywells.

The Police Control room issue is slightly different as the Tory PCC seems to have decided himself that it is political suicide to close the control room, do not be fooled by the story about the ‘business case does not stack up’ – when he spoke to the IBC Scrutiny meeting last month he made it quite clear that the control room would probably close with other back office jobs coming to Suffolk in return. You would have thought when he spoke to Scrutiny he would have already known of the business case and details of the closure, weeks late he was happy to send every house in Suffolk a letter detailing the savings he has already made and the savings of close to £6 million he will be making in the future – was the closing of the control room in his savings – or has he no idea of where the savings will be made?

In reading that letter you would get the impression that he is in full control of the budget and has a full understanding of the business plan, but now we seem to get the impression (from Mr Passmore) that he had no prior visibility of the business plan.

I am sure Mr Passmore was surprised by the large attendance of staff and union members at the meeting held to rubber stamp the merger of control rooms with Norfolk, he would not have felt comfortable with the presence of two Labour PPCs in the room and I am sure he would have been slightly surprised by the anger shown by those who were likely to lose their job. But I believe his main reason for the sudden change in plan was when the local paper the EADT, announced they were against the plan.

What had been noticeable up to his announcement of his ‘change of mind’ was the total silence of the seven Suffolk Tory MPs – and even after the sudden change of plan, only Mr Gummer has commented on the issue- possibly due to small majority he holds in Ipswich.

Suffolk MPs do seem loathe to comment on any cuts being imposed by the Tory run County Council or the Tory PCC, maybe they know that the Tory Cllrs would not be happy to be lectured to by MPs when they are just carrying out Tory policies!

So do not expect to hear Mr Gummer making too much of a fuss over the closure of the Felixstowe Rd Children’s Centre, just expect him to repeat the County Council line of ‘services will be maintained but at other locations’ – the question is what locations?

My week ahead, 9 - 15 March 2014

Monday – 10 March , 6pm Labour campaigning

Thursday – 13 March, 6pm – Ipswich Borough Scrutiny meeting

Saturday 15 March, 10am – Labour campaigning – South East Ipswich

Not a great week for Tories in Suffolk, but we are unable to gloat as it has been an even worse week for all Suffolk residents because of the local Tories.

First of all we had the damming report on the Tory run Suffolk County Council School Improvement team, more concerning for me was the refusal of those meant to leading the County Council to see that things need to change. We were almost deafened by the silence of the counties Tory MPs. I suppose I should be thankful that the Tory MP for Ipswich, Ben Gummer did criticise the County but there were very few words from him and he was certainly not ‘extensively quoted’ as he made out on twitter.

Something has to be done and done quick but that seems unlikely with the current Tory cabinet, so it is good to see that Labour have called for a vote of ‘no confidence’ in the Tory Cabinet member responsible for education. Will be interesting to see if all Tory councillors vote with their own group, in particular those from the west of the county who seem to be in open mutiny on the direction the Tories are leading the county on education.

Then we had the Tory Police and Crime Commissioner for Suffolk deciding not to go ahead with the merger of the Suffolk and Norfolk Police control rooms, now at least one Tory blogger is trying to spin this as an attempt to show that Mr Passmore has the interests of Suffolk as his main concern when deciding on budgets but those of us who heard Mr Passmore speak at Scrutiny will know that is far from the truth as it from what the Tory PCC said at that meeting the merger was a ‘done deal’. It also seems that is what the Norfolk PCC and both Chief Constables thought.

Yesterday, I received my council tax demand and in his spiel, Mr Passmore mentions savings of £2.3 million in 14/15 rising to £6.1 million in 17/18 – was that written before his U – turn on the police control room merger?

Wonder where the savings will come from now?

There was one other bit of bad news for the Ipswich Tories that did bring a smile Ipswich Labour faces, the Tories decided to change their group leadership, but it seemed not all the Tory councillors were happy with the changes with a number wondering how those who abstained on the Tory budget amendment seem to have escaped any sanction – never trust a Tory – even if you are a Tory!

Just get rid of the minions!

It was announced today that a further 70 civilian jobs are under threat as the Suffolk and Norfolk police forces continue to advance their plans over collaboration.

80 civilian staff have already been made redundant – but what about those at the top? Their jobs seem to be safe.

One policy issue the last Labour Government did get wrong was their failure to implement the changes to the Police Force in the UK that were proposed by the former Chief Constable for the RUC, Ronnie Flanagan.

The police were against his proposals that would have seen the Suffolk Constabulary merge, who with was still to be decided. But the plan was scrapped and Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Essex kept their separate identities.

A year into having a Police and Crime Commissioner in charge of Suffolk policing we see further evidence that Suffolk and Norfolk Constabularies are merging in all but name. The trouble is, civilian jobs are lost as the forces work closer together, we see more joint police teams but what we still have will be two Police and Crime Commissioners with two fully recruited teams plus two Chief Constables and numerous deputies.

So this is where real savings can be made, but we see a similar story in local government (and again our Suffolk PCC is involved) we saw a merger of the council staff and offices in Mid Suffolk and Babergh but we still see two fully elected sets of councillors, with a similar story about to happen on the East Coast of Suffolk.

Will that see an improved service for Suffolk residents? Possibly so and at less cost but today we also hear accusations that democracy is shrinking in Mid Suffolk so not all has gone right there.

Like Turkeys voting for Christmas, I can’t see the PCC’s, Chief Constable's or the Police Federation agreeing to the merger of the Suffolk and Norfolk Constabularies but when Labour get into power in 2015 and look at all the different sections of the constabularies that have already merged, we then need to ask why we still have so many at the top whilst many at the bottom are losing their jobs.

300 Suffolk Police jobs axed

This week it was sad to see Inspector Mark Lewis leave his role as head of the North East Ipswich Safer Neighbourhood Team. Mark was one of those who has been heavily involved in the implementation of the SNT's in Ipswich from the start. They have been a resounding success.

Mark will continue to run the South East Team and we will be joined in the North East by Inspector Coe.

We have been promised by the Tory Government that there will be no front line cuts to the police service, but in Ipswich we are going down to 5 inspectors from 9 - according to the Tories, inspectors are not front line policeman. How can running a SNT not be front line?

We also hear that members of the SNT will now be doing some of the work formerly done by the transport division, this may possibly mean that the SNT will be less effective than they previously were.

The Labour Party in Ipswich will continue to campaign to try and stop the Government destroying our police force

Helping to restore peace and calm to the capital

A message from Suffolk Police to Ipswich residents

Helping to restore peace and calm to the capital

Suffolk Police is continuing to support the Metropolitan Police restore peace to the capital by sending further officers to London.
A number will be travelling this afternoon and overnight to help arrest, identify or deter people from rioting and looting.
Police would like to dispel fictitious and malicious rumours which are circulating, particularly on social networking sites about disorder on the streets of Suffolk.
Assistant Chief Constable Paul Marshall said: “We would like to inform residents of Suffolk that there is no unrest here in the county. We understand how distressing these rumours must be to residents of Suffolk and can assure people there is no substance in them.”
Despite the assistance being sent to London, Suffolk Police has a significant number of resources still on duty and a high-visibility presence will continue throughout the day and night to deter any disorder as well as offering reassurance to residents who are worried by the events unfolding in the capital.
ACC Marshall added: “We are working hard to ensure the county remains safe and we have sufficient-trained police officers on duty to deal with any situation should it arise.”
Suffolk Police understands that business owners may be feeling concerned following the recent events in London and are subsequently issuing advice.
Retailers should conduct regular checks outside their building for any suspicious activity, identify any areas of their property which are vulnerable to forced entry and ensure CCTV is fully-operational.
As a precautionary measure additional officers and PCSOs will patrolling main towns to provide high-visibility reassurance patrols. They will be visiting businesses, community venues and other places where people gather to engage with local people and provide advice and guidance.
Police in Suffolk are reiterating the words of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner Tim Godwin and would urge parents to be aware of and ask their children where they are and who they are with.
If anyone has information about any possible daytime disorder they can contact Suffolk Police on 01473 613745 or in an emergency call 999.