MPs say police funding crisis must be tackled now

Date published: 22/12/2006

Greater Manchester’s four Liberal Democrat MPs have joined forces in the campaign for more police on our streets and have united to call for Greater Manchester Police’s budget crisis to be dealt with.  More cuts in policing across Greater Manchester are inevitable over the next three years, say the MPs, unless there is a massive Government U-turn on grant money. 

The four MPs emerged 'shocked and dismayed' from a briefing meeting on Thursday 21 December with Police Authority Chairman, Derek Osbaldeston, called to discuss the crisis over next year's Police Budget.

In 2006, while crime in Greater Manchester is rising (in this financial year to date - April 2006 to November 2006 - recorded crime has been 3.6% higher than in the same period in the previous financial year), the government has cut funding for the local police force, resulting in 216 fewer police officers on the streets of Greater Manchester.

Paul Rowen MP said: "The Police are struggling now, with frontline numbers propped up by cutting specialists elsewhere.  Instead of cutting police numbers, the Liberal Democrats propose to put 1,000 extra police officers onto our streets, funded by scrapping Labour's multi-billion pound ID card scheme. 

"The budget crisis will mean less officers on the streets of Rochdale and this is at a time when it is quite clear that more are needed. 

"I will be working with Rochdale’s Member on the Greater Manchester Police Authority, Councillor Barbara Todd, and will be finding out what three years of cuts, amounting to nearly £30 Million, will actually mean in terms of losing policing resources in Rochdale.  This is clearly unacceptable and we have launched a petition calling for our fair share of funding."

Hazel Grove MP – Andrew Stunell said, "We were told that there can be no chance of restoring the police officers lost this year, and that the Chief Constable's present calculation is that they will be looking for a further £27 million of cuts up to 2009.  One fundamental problem is that although Whitehall has set a formula for paying grant, they have been holding back on the full payment.  In the last five years that has cost the Police and council tax payers of Greater Manchester more than £35 million.

Now the MPs say they will be raising the issue urgently at national level.

Cheadle MP Mark Hunter, who is the Liberal Democrat frontbench spokesperson on Home Affairs and Policing, said: "I have already asked for a meeting with the Home Secretary, and I and my colleagues now fully intend to take the whole question of the crisis in police funding onto the floor of the House of Commons." 

John Leech, MP for Withington said: "We will be pressing for a full debate, and answers from Ministers.  The fact is that wherever you live across Greater Manchester there is not enough of a police presence.  Further threats to police stations and manning levels are unacceptable." 

The MPs say that their priorities are to get the missing Government grant money put back into the Police budget, for this year's cut of 216 police officers to be reversed, and for a strong move towards community-based policing already a feature of better funded police areas such as London.