Cuts will decimate local policing in St Neots, Great Paxton, Abbotsley, Waresley and Great Gransden.
On October 21 Cambridgeshire Constabulary announced that it plans to halve the number of Police Community Support Officers deployed across the county, and shut the majority of enquiry offices in its Police Stations.
With local police teams already stretched to breaking point, I am convinced that these reductions in policing will have serious negative consequences for communities across the county, but particularly for the area served by the St Neots Policing team.
The St Neots Policing team cover a huge area that includes St Neots, Great Paxton, the Offords, Kimbolton, Buckden, Waresley, Abbotsley and Great Gransden. They do this with a skeleton force of just 2 warranted officers, 3 full-time PCSOs and one part-time PCSO. In the planned cuts we look likely to lose at least half of those PCSOs.
In Huntingdonshire, I have led the opposition to these cuts. Here is what I told the Hunts Post:
“On January 9 2019, the then Police and Crime Commissioner, Jason Ablewhite, committed to a new police station for St Neots. The news today is that a cost-saving operation will see the number of PCSOs across the county slashed from 80 down to 40.
“At a time when everyone is concerned about the rise in anti-social behaviour, and the non-investigation of crimes that hurt us all, this seems like a critical blow. We need more police not fewer.
I was also interviewed live on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire about the cuts on Thursday October 29.
On November 10th I attended a meeting with the acting Police and Crime Commissioner Ray Bisby (along with the chairpeople of other town and parish councils).
I asked Mr Bisby if he intended to honour the commitment that his predecessor (elected PCC Jason Ablewhite) made to build a new Police Station for St Neots. Former PCC Jason Ablewhite said on January 9th 2019: “You have my assurance that [while I’m in this seat] there will always be a police station in St Neots”. Subsequently telling residents, “St Neots police station is not closing. I want to dispel that myth.”
PCC Bisby told me that they were still in negotiation, but refused to make any commitment. He further made the point that the decision to close the enquiry desk (which we assume will happen) is the decision of the Chief Constable and nothing to do with him.
How is it that an unelected PCC in the final months of his “term” is able to make such drastic cuts and renege on commitments made by his elected predecessor? Ablewhite told us that he intended to increase Police numbers in the county not reduce them: “With an ever-growing demand on policing, we remain committed to building trust and confidence within our communities and welcome the opportunities and challenges posed by an increase in officers.”
Due to St Neots being the third largest urban area in the county, it is logical and appropriate that it should have manned ‘stations’ for all three emergency services, and that is before taking in to account the towns proximity to the ECML; the EWR (hopefully); the A1; A428 etc.
The emergency services often work together to deal with large / life threatening incidents already (the fatal house fire on Buttercup Avenue in December 2020 immediately springs to mind) and (depending on the nature of the situation) the lead will fall to a senior rep from one of the services.
As they work together, why not ‘house’ them together?
Accordingly; it would make considerable sense, if the station buildings were merged together into a single, larger building on one site. It does not even have to be located in the centre of town if a cheaper site can be found elsewhere such as between the A1 & Little Paxton, or as part of the Wintingham development. A joint ‘station’ would benefit from shared management and support i.e. public reception; shower facilities; canteen; stationary; stores etc and ought to mean the building an be manned 24hrs a day. The staff of the three services do a fantastic job, routinely risking their own safety to help others; on call for long and unsociable hours; working with less employment rights and paid a wage which dosen’t properly reflect their worth. We should atleast ensure that they work out of a modern; fit for purpose facility.
The funding for the new station could be raised by the sale of the redundant ‘old station’ sites and maybe leave some money to bolster the front line of all three services.