Gwent Police’s Chief Constable Carmel Napier has written to local politicians to explain the force’s decision to close 17 of its police stations to the public.
Last month, it was announced that the stations would be closing its front desks. These include stations in Caerphilly, Bargoed, Rhymney, Ystrad Mynach, Bedwas and Risca.
The 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.
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.
Chief Constable Mrs Napier said in her letter to politicians there will be a month-long consultation process.
But Mrs Napier has made clear that her decision to concentrate front counter services at five police stations is firm.
She has said she will agree alternative proposals with the Gwent Police Authority at a meeting at the end of June.
Mrs Napier said: “It is important that our station enquiry staff, at these 17 locations, are not given false hope by anyone, and that they focus their energy on attempting to secure alternative employment in other roles within Gwent Police or elsewhere.”
The plans to close the stations have faced fierce criticism from local politicians.
The Chief Constable’s letter to politicians
I am aware of your continuing interest in Gwent Police’s Accessibility Strategy and wanted to take the opportunity to provide you with an update.
This particular plan is one of a range of schemes the force has had to develop to ensure we are able to operate the most important areas of our service at significantly less cost within our Staying Ahead programme. “Staying Ahead” was introduced in 2007 and in October 2010 the programme was extended by a further four years to reflect the changing circumstances resulting from the Comprehensive Spending Review. Reviews conducted to date have already achieved efficiencies of some £18 million. However, by 31 March 2015 I will need to make further difficult decisions to ensure we achieve savings of an additional £14 million.
Our key mission in Gwent Police is to protect and reassure the public and our current policing priorities are to deliver an excellent service to the public, to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, to improve efficiency, reduce waste and duplication, and increase productivity and to work with partners to keep people safe.
Despite the reductions in spend we have had to achieve within the last twelve months I am pleased to be able to say that we have more than exceeded the targets set by the Police Authority. During the last twelve months, with the support of our partners, we have managed to reduce crime in Gwent by over 14% – this amounts to 6631 fewer victims. During the same period of time anti-social behaviour has seen reductions of some 29%, which amounts to 15,492 fewer victims and we have also increased the number of offenders we have brought to justice.
As Chief Constable I will continue to serve the citizens of Gwent by making decisions, sometimes difficult ones, based on my professional judgement and other senior police officers. When making these decisions I need to balance many competing interests but I will be unwavering in ensuring that I do all I can to ensure that front line policing numbers are not reduced. Neighbourhood Policing is our key brand and I am determined to ensure that our Police Officers and Community Support Officers remain, providing the very visible and important service our communities value.
In terms of the Accessibility Strategy for the force I am aware that our plans for re-provision, which directly affect our station enquiry officers at our 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, Front Enquiry Offices, have attracted some comment in the media and in other forums. For that reason I have formed the view that it is important that I provide information to you to help you understand that my rationale. All of the changes that we will be taking forward will support our overall vision for accessibility. This is that:
Citizens of Gwent are readily able to access our services in a way that meets their needs and that when they try to access our services they receive a professional and caring service that is responsive to their needs.
The strategy recognises both the financial challenges we face as a service but also provides an opportunity for us to build new methods of service re-provision that will better meet the needs of citizens now and in the future. Members of the public access our services in a range of different ways – 77% choose to contact us by telephone and more people want to access our services through social media and other technology based channels. Others have welcomed our investment in the last two years in three Mobile Police Stations which have been deployed right across the Gwent area engaging with communities about issues that concern them.
Having reviewed the low levels of usage of our 9am to 5pm front office provision I am convinced that we need to move our resourcing strategy from paying people to staff the front desks at these sites that receive low numbers of visits to investing in other access channels for our citizens. I must stress, however, that these plans will have no negative impact whatsoever on the number of Police Officers and Community Support Officers operating in these areas. In short my operational policing teams will maintain their visible presence and 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. In that respect we are currently considering whether to secure two further Mobile Stations which will enable us to ensure that we go to the public rather than expecting them to find us at fixed locations. That said I recognise the importance of maintaining a number of access hubs and these will remain at Newport Central, Blackwood, Ebbw Vale, Cwmbran and Abergavenny. It is interesting to note that two thirds of those who wish to access our services via physical sites do so through those locations I will be retaining. It is also interesting to examine why people choose to call into our 9am to 5pm front enquiry offices as many of these do not relate to core police functions. Further detail on the rationale around my decisions is provided on the Police Authority website which I would invite you to peruse –
http://www.gwentpa.police.uk/public-meetings/full-authority-agendas/2012/29th-march/
On 29 March 2012 these plans were discussed with our Police Authority members and it was agreed the force would now move forward with its engagement plan. It has always been my intention to engage with key stakeholders to help us make decisions around service re-provision at each of these seventeen front enquiry offices and I would like to provide you with an outline of these plans. It is my intention to discuss the re-provision proposals with local authorities, elected members, town councils and members of the public and my team is currently drawing up plans to undertake this work. At these events it is my intention to secure the relevant stakeholder views on the shape of the service re-provision. It is also my intention to conclude this engagement activity by 7 June 2012, following which the feedback will be analysed and final proposals for re-provision will be shared with ACC Prince who is leading this piece of work on behalf of the force. He will then update me and I will discuss the final service re-provision plans with the Police Authority on 28 June 2012 when we will agree a way forward.
In the spirit of openness and transparency I think it is important for you to appreciate that I am firm in my decision that people will not in future resource these seventeen front enquiry offices but that I will agree alternative provision proposals with the Police Authority on the above date.
I know it will not be lost upon you that managing significant change also affects people on a personal basis and it is important that our station enquiry staff, at these seventeen locations, are not given false hope by anyone and that they focus their energy on attempting to secure alternative employment in other roles within Gwent Police or elsewhere.
Finally, can I take this opportunity to reassure you that I will ensure that appropriate re-provision arrangements are put in place prior to the removal of the station enquiry officers from these sites.