Posturing on the Police

Today, presumably off the top of his head, Boris Johnson announced that new draconian punishments would miraculously be added to the powers of police officers, judges and magistrates dealing with knife crime.

Diane Abbott, Labour's Shadow Home Secretary, declared: "This is just posturing on crime and Boris Johnson knows it."
 

Johnson supported Tory cuts to the police and has no plans to restore the frontline officers that successive Tory governments have axed. In his time as London Mayor,Johnson promised to recruit 'thousands of extra police' but, of course, never delivered on his promise.

The Tories aren't really putting 20,000 extra officers on the streets to tackle the knife crime that has become an epidemic during their time in government. Nor do they intend to do anything about the youth services they cut, or funding for drug prevention schemes. It goes without saying they will do nothing whatever about the spike in school exclusions. All these things - all these cuts and fiddling with figures - have contributed to rising crime.

Tinkering with police powers will not disguise a decade of Tory failure.

You can't have community safety on the cheap

Repairing the damage

Lord Willy Bach, your Labour Police and Crime Commissioner, explains what cuts to police budgets really mean for Leicestershire.

Our MP claims the Tories are “the Party of Law and Order.” What a joke! Leicestershire has lost 550 police officers over recent years. Our Youth Services have been savaged. Now – surprise, surprise – just before a likely General Election, there is a promise of 20,000 new officers. Even if that promise is kept (and that’s a big if) it would still not get anywhere near the number lost to the cuts.

Meanwhile I have carefully and responsibly increased the number of police officers each year I have been in office. For this year, up to June 2020, the number is 107. By raising the police part of the Council Tax and making sensible use of Reserves, I have set about repairing the damage caused by almost a decade of Tory and Lib Dem austerity.

Of course the fall in police numbers affects the crime rate. Not only is there an increased population in Lutterworth and Broughton Astley, but new offences like Modern Slavery and People Trafficking demand specialist investigative skills.

It was unforgivable of the Tories to cut the police force to the level it did. A Labour Government will ensure we have the right number of officers to properly protect our communities.

Our candidate for change - Tristan Koriya

The Labour candidate for South Leicestershire in the General Election on December 12 is Tristan Koriya.

Tristan lives in Lutterworth with his wife Sarah. He is a Business Consultant and is active in many local causes. There will be much more on this blog about Tris over the coming days. Please check back.

Planning gains fiasco at Glenfield!

Everybody's favourite council is back in the headlines for all the usual reasons. Fecklessness, incompetence, pointlessness...

Leicestershire County Council, the well-known low-interest unsecured loans business, has handed back £900,000 in planning gains to hard-pressed developers. Why? Because these 'gains' must be spent within a certain period of time. It's a long period because some big developments are complicated and take time to come to fruition. There's only one other condition - that the donations are necessary to offset the impact of the development, which is sensible and prudent, otherwise they would just look like backhanders.


So the need existed - was established and proven through the planning inquiry system - it was just that Leicestershire County Council, so busy doing nothing in so many other areas, just didn't get to doing anything about it. So now the need will go on being unmet, for the foreseeable future. Nice work, guys!

More on the Northamptonshire loan

Readers will recall me waxing lyrical last week on Leicestershire County Council's best-buddy loan of £5 million to poor old Northamptonshire County Council. Just seven days later comes the devastating Best Value Report into NCC and its works commissioned by Communities Minister Sayed Javid.


Those with strong stomachs can click here for all the gory details. For hardened horror fans I recommend the appendix case study about Olympus Care Services in which the Council manages to fall out with its own pretend business.

The report's conclusions are stark: "The problems faced by NCC are now so deep and ingrained that it is not possible to promote a recovery plan that could bring the council back to stability and safety in a reasonable timescale [4.16]." "To change the cultural and organisational ethos and to restore balance ... would take of the order of 5 years and require a substantial one-off cash injection. Effectively, it would be a reward for failure. ... A way forward with a clean sheet, leaving all the history behind, is required. [4.17]"


The report writers propose total abolition in 2020 and replacement with two unitary councils made up of the seven districts and boroughs. In the meantime, the Minister is urged to impose direct rule.


The 'history' is quite something. Scrutiny that is not allowed to scrutinise, audit that is not given full facts. A £21.1 million overspend already this financial year. Total financial incompetence. For example, consider the council's approach to financial management - "sloppy, lacking rigour and without challenge [3.66]."


It gets worse. When he heard about the Best Value inspection, the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman, Michael King, felt obliged to write to the inspectors - something that's almost unheard-of. What did he have to say? "...that NCC was one of the most difficult authorities the Ombudsman had engaged with both in the terms of time taken to respond in the course of investigations but also in the authority's approach to complaint handling, learning from mistakes and remedying injustice [3.87]."

That's right, they flatly refuse to listen to tribunals, their external auditors and their fellow councils. Any self-respecting elected member would resign forthwith on receiving this level of condemnation. We can take it for granted they won't. Indeed, they haven't. The Minister will have to abolish the council from under them and even then they will simply stand again for the new unitary authorities. For incompetence that goes above and beyond, for wilful and persistent negligence in ignoring the facts, there should be special punishments. Those responsible should be banned from public service for a period reflecting their level of responsibility.


And as for Leicestershire County Council... Everybody in local government must have known there was an investigation under way. Why didn't they wait for the outcome before dipping into our pockets? Northamptonshire is going to disappear in 2020 at the latest. Are their successor bodies going to be held responsible for their debts? No, why should they be? How could they be?


But, fear not, our £5 million has not been spent entirely in vain. There is a lesson here for our county councillors if they choose to read it. You know how LCC is always banging on about how little funding they get from the government? Well NCC tried that one too. The inspector's response?


"The whole point of a funding formula, however inadequate its basis, is to reflect different needs [3.8]."


Exactly.

CLP Annual Dinner - Guest Lillian Greenwood MP

Braunstone Civic Centre, Saturday March 10 2018.