The Chief Constable of Gwent Police is to meet the public face-to-face to explain her decision to close police stations across the force area.
Chief Constable Carmel Napier will be at Tesco, in Pontymister, Risca, on Wednesday morning between 9.30am and 10.30am, and again at Morrisons, Caerphilly, between 12.30pm and 1.30pm to explain her decision to close them.
Ms Napier said: “Like every other police force in England and Wales, Gwent has to make a 20% cut in spending. To keep officers on the streets, cuts are being made in support staff, and a total of 58 money saving schemes are currently underway.
“It is important to stress that we are not closing Police Stations and that the number of police officers and community support officers operating from existing locations will remain the same.
“Those neighbourhood officers will continue to build on the range of existing engagement activity which includes police surgeries, PACT meetings, visits to community groups and taking our Mobile Police Stations out into the community to ensure we remain accessible to the public.”
The closing stations will remain as bases for police officers but will be closed to visitors wishing to report crimes in person. The changes will see the loss of 19 front desk jobs across the force.
Gwent Police has said the changes will save it £500,000. Due to budget cuts from the UK Government, the force has to find savings of £34 million by 2015.
Blackwood is the only station in Caerphilly County Borough that will still have a public front desk and will continue to be open from 8am to 8pm seven days a week. Only Newport Central will have 24-hour public access across the force area.
The Chief Constable going out to meet the public is part of the force’s consultation on the closures, which ends on Friday June 1.
The force has said it has received more than 1,000 responses to a survey online and at public consultation events.
This week, officers will be at:
- Ysbyty Ystrad Fawr on Tuesday May 29 between 10 am and 4pm
- Tesco, Pontymister, Risca, Wednesday May 30, from 9am to 4pm
- Morrison’s Caerphilly, Thursday May 31, from 12pm to 7pm
- Tesco Extra, Trethomas, Friday June 1, between 10am and 5pm
Earlier this month, Caerphilly MP Wayne David presented a petition to Ms Napier with 1,000 names against the police station closures.
Once again biased reporting by the Caerphilly Observer in support of their favourite MP – Wayne David.
Yes he presents a petition to the Chief Constable with 1000 signatures on it but with eh population of Caerphilly being stated at 174,400 (http://www.caerphilly.gov.uk/pdf/Community_Living/Population-projections-report.pdf) that means that every one signature he and his party got whilst campaigning for the recent local elections there are over 173 people in Caerphilly who they dared not ask or if asked refused to sign. Hardly a representative petition!
My web site blog – http://chris4gwentpcc.co.uk/the-police-do-we-need-police-stations – shows that in austere times we need radical solutions. My MP – and the supporter of one of the Labour party candidate for the Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner – I expect to challenge a Chief Constable’s plan, if it is wrong, with one of his own. I do not expect him to sit in Westminster and criticise.
I also ask that this newspaper reflect the views of all the population of Caerphilly – Not just those of the Labour party, its MP or the one in 174
I concur with the penultimate line of Chris`s request, he is the `hope to be` Gwent Police Commissioner after all!!!
Petitions and surveys are always dependent upon the wording of questions used. I wonder if the petition mentioned where the funding would come from to keep stations open.
I was one, of only one, members of the public, to attend a ` presentation` given personally by the Gwent Chief Constable Carmel Napier,to the Caerphilly Town council before it`s last meeting on the 16th May in which she dealt with the financial pressures on her police force and the need for her to make savings in expenditure of millions of pounds.
I have been a critic of the closure of local police stations, but, after listening to what the Chief Constable had to say, and hearing what plans she has implemented and more which she intends to implement which appears to be designed to bring local policing and local police officers closer to the people of communities up and down the Gwent area, I must say it is difficult not to agree with her decisions and plans, the efficiency of those plans however rests with local managers and supervisory Inspectors, the proof of what the Chief Constable wants her force to achieve in making these financial savings will be in the eating. I found her assurances and her clear water plans difficult to disagree with.
Mr. Bond was sole representative of the general public at the presentation provided by the Chief Constable because very few people, including several elected councillors (myself included), were informed that this briefing was to take place. This is an insupportable situation, in a democracy, and an insult to Chief Constable Napier who had taken the trouble to visit the town council to explain why budgetary constraints have led her to implement a new style of policing.
I, along with Cllr. Talbot, wrote to the Town Clerk, on 20th May to express our dissatisfaction that such an important policy presentation, which has implications for each and every one of us within the Gwent Force area, was not made known to all councillors. I am satisfied, by his reply, that this situation will not arise again. In future all councillors will be made aware of speakers invited to town council meetings which will enable them to encourage members of the public to attend meetings, especially where matters of grave import are discussed.
This can only be of benefit to local democracy and the engagement of the general public in the processes that affect their day to day lives, a concept that I am keen to promote.