Councilsurged tofund police supportofficers

TOWN and parish councils have been urged to consider funding community support officers as a way of protecting them from possible cuts in the public spending review.

Humberside Police Authority chairman, Coun Chris Matthews, said PCSOs were an “integral” part of neighbourhood policing and suggested councils could follow the lead of Hessle Town Council, which has funded a PCSO for nearly five years.

Responding to public concerns raised during an online discussion, Coun Matthews said: “They (PCSOs) are embedded in society and for many of our residents, life without their local PCSOs would deprive them of the reassurance they give.

“Consequently with the pending police budget cuts there is a great deal of concern that residents will lose their neighbourhood PCSO.”

He added: “Currently there is a recruitment freeze throughout all sections of our police force as part of the planned approach to meet the pending budget cuts.

“This will impact on all sections of policing. As officers and staff retire or leave the force, numbers will gradually reduce including the number of PCSOs.

“However, that need not be the case if the police authority is able to secure support from its partners as it has done with several parish and town councils.

“Some have supported the police by funding neighbourhood teams with bicycles; one town council has gone a step further by funding its own PCSO.

“If we can encourage some of the other parish and town councils to examine this as an option when they consider their own priorities, then we may be able to find a way not only to maintain the existing number of PCSOs, but perhaps increase them if this is what the public want.”

There are currently 321 PCSOs in the Humberside Police area, alongside 2,032 police officers and 1,847 police staff.

Hessle was one of the first areas to get community support officers when they were introduced in August 2005.

The town was allocated four PCSOs but has been funding a fifth at a cost of 27,000 a year to the town council, representing more than a sixth of its annual budget of 150,000.

A PCSO’s salary is 20,484, but the cost of employing one to the force is 32,423 a year, which includes shift allowance and weekend working costs.

Hessle town councillor Bob Tress, a former member of the police authority, said community support officers were more valuable to the community than police dogs, horses and the force helicopter.

“I think they are absolutely brilliant,” he said. “They do all the house-to-house stuff and visit the schools and they are well known and valued.”

The cost of funding the officer adds about 5 a year to the council tax bills of Band D properties in Hessle.

Coun Tress said: “We had a poll and nearly 80 of our residents voted for it.”