West Lancs Labour vote against calls for extra PCSO powers

Last night I attended the meeting of Full Council in Ormskirk to hear the debate regarding my call for extra powers for Police Community Support Officers.

My Derby Ward colleague, and Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Cllr Paul Greenall, placed the following Motion on the agenda:

“This Council notes that under various legislation, 22 powers are available to be granted to Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) at the discretion of Chief Constables but that in Lancashire, only one of these powers (i.e. the power to issue fixed penalty notices for dog fouling) has so far been granted to our PCSOs. This Council also notes that locally, West Lancashire Conservatives have been lobbying Lancashire Constabulary to increase the number of discretionary powers available to PCSOs. Accordingly, this Council supports the actions of West Lancashire Conservatives and formally calls on the Chief Constable of Lancashire Constabulary to provide PCSOs with more discretionary powers.”

Fairly straightforward… so much so that I was hoping it would get cross-party support so the Council could go to the Chief Constable and urge him to think again.

The issue has been well documented in the local press and on this blog since I launched my campaign last month, and it has attracted a lot of support, most notably with local residents.

While out and about earlier this week, I called on a gentleman who, having explained I was a local council candidate, gave me a “you’re all the same – I’m not voting for anyone” response, something which candidates, councillors etc of all parties, (and even those of none), get from time to time on the doorstep. I politely thanked him for his time and moved on. About 1 minute later, having finished speaking to his neighbour, he came back out and wanted to speak about the leaflet I’d handed him a minute earlier which talked about my PCSO powers campaign. This had caught his attention, and indeed he told me that it was a topic of conversation among his friends. I explained the unfairness between PCSO powers in Lancashire and Manchester, and we then chatted for a more few minutes. It ended with him saying that as a result of my campaign, he may support me.

So it was with great hope I entered the Council Chamber last night, but the West Lancs Labour Group on the council had other ideas. Right from the start of the debate on PCSOs, it was clear Labour were against it.

The excuses they gave for voting against Paul’s Motion were very weak – ranging from the sentiment that we shouldn’t be bothering the Chief Constable on this, (let’s leave the small matter that his wages are paid by the taxpayer to one side) to the bizarre notion that Police Community Support Officers weren’t brought in to support the police!

So Labour’s position was simple; never mind that local residents want it, never mind that a Labour-affiliated union (Unison) wants it, never mind the fact that PCSOs themselves want it, and never mind that Labour MPs leglislated to bring in discretionaty powers for PCSOs. we’re going to vote against it.

I must admit I was surprised at Labour’s stance, after all it was a Labour Government which brought in PCSOs and, as I say above, legislated to allow them to have extra discretionary powers. The local Labour Group now appear to be condemning what their own Government did when it was in power.

Labour’s refusal to support our campaign means they are backing a two-tier policing system which sees Constables having to be diverted from more serious incidents because they do not trust PCSOs their own Government brought in to use the extra powers their own MPs legislated for.

It is a shame they appear uninterested in helping to make our local communities safer. Labour are completely out of touch and isolated on this issue, which has support from trade unionists, councillors, PCSOs themselves and residents.

After voting against more powers for PCSOs, Labour have shown themselves to be a party which is soft on crime.

Councillors to debate my calls for extra PCSO powers

Borough councillors are set to formally debate my calls for extra PCSO powers next week.

A motion on the subject has been placed on next Wednesday’s agenda by my Derby Ward colleague Cllr Paul Greenall, who is also the Borough Council’s Conservative Cabinet member for Community Safety.

You may remember I launched a campaign last month calling on the Chief Constable of Lancashire to hand down more discretionary powers to his frontline Community Support Officers. Since then, my campaign has been backed by leading councillors and residents.

I’m delighted this important issue will be debated publicly by councillors next week.

At present, out of 22 discretionary powers available to the Chief Constable, just one has been issued – the power to hand out fixed penalty notices for dog fouling. We have a situation where 95% of discretionary powers are not used in Lancashire, whereas in neighbouring Wigan, PCSOs there use 67% of the discretionary powers available to them.

This is having a real effect on the frontline as streets on the West Lancshire/Wigan border are getting a two tier policing service, depending on whether you live on the Wigan side of the road or the West Lancashire side.

I’ve also been told of incidents where a PCSO has attended an incident and wanted to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice but didn’t have the power, so had to radio back to the station for a PC to come out and do it for them. This is a ridiculous waste of precious resources.

I hope councillors support my calls for the Chief Constable of Lancashire to hand down more discretionary powers to our local PCSOs. My message is simple – it’s time to give PCSOs the extra powers they need to make our communities safer instead of expecting them to police with one hand tied behind their backs.

Why UNISON should back my campaign for extra discretionary powers for Lancashire’s PCSOs

This week I have written to trade union UNISON, who represent PCSOs in Lancashire, asking them to back my campaign to give frontline support officers more discretionary powers.

Regular readers will know this all stems from information I gleaned from a Freedom of Information Act request which revealed that out of 22 discretionary powers at the disposal of Lancashire’s Chief Constable, just 1 of them has been handed down to local Community Support Officers – the power to issue a Fixed Penalty Notice for dog fouling. 95% of discretionary powers are not used.

Last week, I revealed how neighbouring Greater Manchester Police had given 67% of discretionary powers to its PCSOs, leading to some streets on the border between Wigan and West Lancs having a two tier policing service depending on what side of the road you live on.

It is now becoming clear that far from the police’s claim that there is ‘no current appetite’ for more discretionary powers, the public are of a different view.

The police have given no clear reason as to why Lancashire’s PCSOs only have one discretionary power at their disposal but colleagues in Greater Manchester have 14. The average family in West Lancs pays slightly more in Council Tax to the police than the same family in Manchester, so why can’t our PCSOs have the same powers at least? If it’s good enough for Manchester, then surely it’s also good enough for Lancashire?

In the past, Unison at a national level have called on police chiefs to give more powers to PCSOs so I hope the local branch which represents PCSOs in Lancashire will support my campaign.

By joining together on this, we can press the police to ensure that our frontline officers have the extra powers needed to protect the public in a more efficient and effective way.

The road where West Lancashire PCSOs have fewer powers than colleagues patrolling the same street

My latest investigations into the lack of discretionary powers for our local PCSO threw up an interesting comparison this week.

As regular readers will know, I want Lancashire’s Chief Constable to hand down more of the 20-plus discretionary powers than he has done so far. Currently, only one discretionary power has been handed down to frontline CSOs, leaving 95% of discretionary powers not being used. Greater Manchester Police on the other hand use 67% of discretionary powers available to them.

Of course, Lancashire shares a border with Greater Manchester and in fact, in some streets, the boundary goes down the middle of the road. One of these streets happens to be Sefton Avenue in Up Holland.

One side of the street is in West Lancashire, where PCSOs use just one of the discretionary powers available to them, whilst the other side comes under Wigan where PCSOs have 14 discretionary powers. My Conservative colleague County Cllr Carolyn Evans joined me there to help highlight the imbalance. As you will see from the above photo, I’m standing on the Lancs side of the road, where 5% of discretionary powers are used, and Carolyn is stood on the Wigan side, where they used 67% of discretionary powers available to them.

Among the discretionary powers which are available to PCSOs in the Greater Manchester Police area but not in Lancashire are as follows:

• Power to issue penalty notices in respect of offences of disorder
• Power to issue fixed penalty notices for truancy
• Power to issue fixed penalty notices for graffiti and fly-posting
• Power to detain
• Power to disperse groups and remove persons under 16 to their place of residence
• Power to seize drugs and require name and address for possession of drugs

So what we are seeing is a ludicrous postcode lottery in PCSO powers is leading to some local communities having a two tier policing service —depending what side of the street they live on. Ridiculous.

To be able to stand on one side of a street and there be one set of powers available to a PCSO and then cross the road and it be totally different shows just how silly this situation is.

My position is clear; PCSOs are a visible presence but for that to mean anything, they need the powers to back that up, otherwise they won’t get the respect needed.

I discovered this week that the average family in West Lancs pays slightly more in Council Tax to the police compared to those in Greater Manchester, so why can’t we at least have the same level of powers for our PCSOs?

Lancashire’s Chief Constable should undertake an immediate review and give our PCSOs extra powers to help them make our communities as safe as possible.