Mark Burns-Williamson: Politicians must not distract our police from the job in hand

As chairman of West Yorkshire Police Authority for the last eight

years, I have seen a gradual transformation in the way in which

policing is delivered across the county, principally through the introduction of Neighbourhood Policing Teams a few years ago, and the impact they have had on local communities.

I have seen this at first hand in my role as an elected councillor.

The relative growth in budgets nationally over the past decade and at local level through the setting of police council tax (which accounts for roughly 20 per cent of our budget of 430m in West Yorkshire) has enabled improved performance and delivery of a more bespoke policing service. However, faced with a potential 25 per cent cut in funding over the next few years, maintaining what has been achieved in recent times will be a difficult task in itself.

While I welcome the reduction in central targets being handed down from Government, that trend had already started under the previous

administration and the recent announcement by the Home Secretary to

scrap the Confidence and Policing Pledge targets were not the best ones to choose.

Both are aimed at improving customer standards and, in my view, are tangible indicators of what the public feel and should expect from

their police service.

West Yorkshire Police Authority has worked closely with the Chief Constable Sir Norman Bettison and the Force to oversee real improvements in public confidence and satisfaction, while at the same time driving up standards through the Policing Pledge which was launched in January of last year.

In fact, West Yorkshire is only one of three forces nationally to have exceeded the stretching targets that were set around confidence and satisfaction, which in my book is good news for all involved.

Of course, coming back to the immediate challenges around finance and best managing the resources that will be available, work is already underway to radically re-shape how services can best be provided to support the "front-line".

It is taken as a given that "neighbourhood policing" and "response policing" are the bedrock of what needs to be protected as far as possible from the public's perspective, and indeed by the police authority.

However, policing is a complex business these days, despite Theresa May's answer that our mission is "to cut crime, no more no less" to one of my questions at the recent National Policing Conference.

Those of us that have been involved in policing over many years know the policing mission covers various levels from the neighbourhood anti-social behaviour problems to tackling organised crime at a regional and national level. That is why the four authorities and forces in

Yorkshire and the Humber came together formally back in 2006 to address the serious crime issues and the gaps that were identified in various inspection reports.

Regional collaboration will need to take on a new urgency, not only in addressing serious crime capability, but also in seizing opportunities to provide significant efficiencies through shared services such as procurement, IT, forensics, etc with potential savings of between 60m and 100m over a period of years. The current police authorities share this agenda and vision if we are to seriously tackle the anticipated funding shortfalls.

There are no magic switches and this will not happen overnight; hard decisions will have to be made. At a time when such decisions and challenges will need to be met, the Government's proposals to introduce locally-elected police "commissioners" to oversee the police, and abolish police authorities, is both ill-judged and will only be a massive distraction to the job in hand.

The present model of elected councillors and independent members, while in need of some changes, provides a balance of political, geographic, diversity and community representation which works well in having the proper checks and balances in governing the police at the local level. To get the accountability structures wrong is too important to be ignored, and the coalition Government would be wise to think again about these proposals.

Coun Mark Burns-Williamson is chairman of West Yorkshire Police Authority.