A senior officer has warned that neighbourhood policing will take ‘a hit’ for six months as officers are taken away for other tasks.
South Holland Inspector Matt Dickinson said that his local manpower will suffer in the coming months as Lincolnshire Police redeploys some of its officers into roles tackling emergencies, writes Local Democracy Reporter Oliver Castle.
The force is set to trial moving some of its staff from neighbourhood, rural and roads teams on to answering 999 calls and investigating serious crimes in response to financial and staffing pressures.
Members of Spalding Town Forum were told that the move will make it more difficult to tackle some neighbourhood policing activities, such as dangerous and inconsiderate cycling in Spalding town centre – a matter on the councillors’ agenda.
At a meeting on Wednesday, January 14, Insp Dickinson said: “Unfortunately, my team is going to take a bit of a hit for the next six months, which is going to impact what we can do in terms of our enforcement activities.
“We will, by the end of January, lose three community beat managers and one sergeant to bolster the frontline.
“So, for six months, I will be down four police officers and I’m already down two PCSOs (Police Community Support Officers).”
But Insp Dickinson said he remained ‘hopeful’ that the neighbourhood policing team in South Holland would get these officers back once the trial period finishes.
He added: “The light at the end of the tunnel is that there should hopefully be a six month window where we all get those staff back.
“We’re also continuing with the PCSO recruitment to get our numbers across the organisation back up to 50.
“I’m hopeful that through that recruitment process that I’ll get an additional two PCSOs – but they won’t be deployable until the end of September because we’ll be looking at training commencing in May and then it’s about a 10-week training cycle.
“So, short-term pain. The next six months are going to be quite difficult but I’m hopeful that towards the end of September I’ll get my resources back plus more if we recruit back up to full strength from our PCSO capacity.”
Coun James Le Sage (Independent – Spalding St John’s ward) said that while he understood the financial pressures the force is facing, he would like to see the police do more to tackle cycling in Spalding town centre.
Coun Le Sage said: “I appreciate you’re obviously dealing with reduced resources.
“I often will sit and have a nice latte in Costa on an afternoon and I sit there and I see school kids winging it down the high street, bouncing off the curbs, paying no regard whatsoever to the pedestrians in our nicely pedestrianised area that we now have.
“I don’t understand why we can’t have a week where school kids are stopped.
“They should be told ‘this is inappropriate behaviour’ and they should not be riding their bikes like this.
“I personally feel that if you don’t deal with the low level stuff, it always leads to higher level stuff.”
Coun Le Sage went on to urge the force to have more neighbourhood police officers patrolling the town centre to address inconsiderate cycling.
He added: “I just feel we need some presence when the kids are going to school in the morning, when they’re coming back at half past three.
“They need to be stopped and they need to be told. I appreciate you’ve got issues with resourcing, but if we don’t get on top of this eventually there’s going to be an accident – and there’s going to be a bad accident – and somebody will get seriously hurt or potentially even killed.
“I think it’s a nettle that needs to be grasped and it needs to be grasped very quickly.”
But Coun Ingrid Sheard (Reform UK – Spalding Monkshouse) said that parents should be doing more to educate their children about how to cycle responsibly.
She said: “I don’t think it’s totally down to the police to be fair.
“I think it’s down to parents to ensure their children also have lights on their bikes if they’re leaving the home with the bike.
“I think it’s down to everyone to take responsibility for their own actions.”
Insp Dickinson acknowledged there were concerns about inconsiderate cycling in Spalding town centre, but said he can’t promise additional officer patrols at the moment.
He said: “In terms of cycling, I can’t sit here and promise you any dedicated resource, any dedicated days of action because I simply won’t have the resources on my team to deal with that.
“But what I can look at – as mentioned already – is what is going on with regards to the campaigns – working with yourselves to be part of that education piece.
Insp Dickinson went on to say that the neighbourhood policing team in South Holland was also looking at its “wider resources” within the force and if these could be used to provide more education and enforcement.
