I would like to start by welcoming your address to Full Council and I hope that this will become a regular event and is not just another police flash in the pan never to be repeated.
As elected members are always keen to receive police updates and to have the opportunity to ask questions of senior officers as part of our wish to fight crime in partnership and raise concerns from our constituents.
Now if we go back twenty years to 2001 and the Oldham Riots, born from that was township policing the predecessor to neighbourhood policing.
Each ward had its own dedicated Community Beat Officer (CBO) and two Police Community Support Officers (PCSO), with response policing dealing with daily calls.
The Community Beat Officers and Police Community Support Officers worked in partnership with the public, ward councillors, council officers and other professionals across a range of health, housing, social care, and mental health agencies to deliver true community policing and keep our communities safe and just as important feeling safe.
That was the solution then, and it worked, but this is sadly lacking now in its current form.
It has been eroded and eroded to make up for staffing and financial shortfalls to the extent that there is now very little community focus and levels of engagement with councillors, the community and others is but a shadow of what it was.
The result is less confidence, and people regardless of the data, feel less safe and less confident in the community where they live.
The public want the reassurance of seeing uniformed Police Officers and Police Community Support Officers as a visible presence on their streets.
I know that we as elected members and many of our constituents want also to support the Police in the fight against crime, so how do you think we can return to this effective and visible method of policing to bring back public confidence in Greater Manchester Police within the Oldham Borough?
And more specifically could you tell me what three things in local policing will have visibly improved for our residents in 12 months’ time?
Councillor Howard Sykes MBE
3 November 2021