Exclusive: Fears over crime as cuts slash money for prevention

Arguments about police funding have become more heated at Westminster since last month’s riots brought into focus the Government’s plans to reduce forces’ budgets by 20 per cent. But one of the country’s most senior police officers has warned that cuts to other agencies involved in keeping the public safe may have an even greater long-term impact.

Humberside Chief Constable Tim Hollis, who has almost 34 years’ experience, believes crime rates could soar if delicate work to stop vulnerable people offending is allowed to unravel while unemployment rises.

Parts of the region have seen funding cuts of up to 75 per cent for community safety partnerships, the public bodies including council managers, police, fire officers and other organisations which decide how spending should be prioritised to stop crime and anti-social behaviour.

Money for youth services, seen as vital to divert young people from crime, has dried up at every Yorkshire council, and Mr Hollis said a Sexual Assessment Referral Centre to support rape victims in Hull was operating “almost hand to mouth”.

“Local authorities are facing bigger cuts than the police and that is a worry,” the chief constable said. “If you look at a disadvantaged estate and talk of cuts to housing, education and health, it is inevitable that is going to have an impact on how that community feels about itself, and that will have an adverse effect on levels of crime.

“You cannot get away from it. In four or five years’ time, the cumulative impact of these cuts could be quite negative.

“We all want our communities to prosper, we want people to be well educated, have jobs and buy into society. If we go in the opposite direction, where there aren’t opportunities, they haven’t got jobs, things get more fragmented and fractious.”

Services withdrawn or reduced include neighbourhood wardens in the Dearne Valley and a burglary prevention scheme in Leeds. Council grants are shrinking for charities such as Women’s Aid, Victim Support and the Doncaster Rape and Sexual Abuse Counselling Service.

• More in Saturday’s Yorkshire Post