Councillor Howard Sykes MBE confirms new Police investment in Greater Manchester. In a response from the Chief Constable’s office, the recruitment of 20,000 new Police Officers will take over three years to complete. The Greater Manchester Police (GMP) plan is still being built.
The leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Oldham Council was concerned how many Oldham Borough will get. A much smaller recruitment announcement before the letter was sent will provide 20 new Officers in Oldham Borough.
GMP states it is too early to say how many Police Officers Oldham Borough will receive over the next three years. GMP say there hasn’t been any time to work on the Police structuring so far.
The good news is that Oldham Borough will receive 20 new Police Officers from a previous recruitment drive. Five Neighbourhood Beat Officers (NBO) and 15 Neighbourhood Police Officers (NPO). These will take several months to train and recruit.
Councillor Sykes MBE says: “I welcome the hard work taking place locally (and nationally) by our Police to ensure that we have the right Officers and equipment in place to meet local challenges.”
“I hope that over this long three year period, whatever new government we get in December, that they honour this vital policing commitment. It is important to our communities that this does not become a political football or take too long, we have had years of underfunded community policing.”
Copy of response from Chief Constable’s Office:
Dear Councillor Sykes,
Further to the reply you had received acknowledging your email, I thought it may be helpful to provide some more information in relation to your queries and wanted to ensure that you received the information in a timely fashion.
It certainly is positive news in terms of the recruitment of 20,000 new police officers over the next three years and is very welcome. It is early days in terms of the mechanics of all this and there are lots of discussions taking place locally and nationally.
As you are aware the announcement has been made that 347 are for Greater Manchester. In terms of how many will be for Oldham, it is too early to say as the announcement has just been made and there hasn’t been any modelling work on this as yet – the process by which allocation is determined.
The 100 new officers you are referring to is an intake as part of our ongoing recruitment (already planned prior to the national uplift) and there are a number of intakes. In total we are recruiting an additional 320 Police Officers for Greater Manchester and with current plans 220 will be directly allocated to districts, with the remainder tackling issues across the Force area, including on our transport network. The allocation has also been determined regarding the precept funded officers too.
So as it currently stands Oldham will receive an allocation of 5 Neighbourhood Beat Officers (NBO) and 15 Neighbourhood Police Officers (NPO). It is also worth noting that, as you might imagine, with new officers there is a significant period of induction and training before they actually land on their allocated district – and after that localised training (e.g. driving) and other related abstractions.
In terms of the timeframes for the national recruitment drive we only have a limited picture at the moment, though clearly it is intended to be over a 3-year period. We are able to assure you that there is a lot of work taking place locally (and nationally) to ensure that we have the right infrastructure in place to meet the welcome challenge.
I hope this assists.
Many thanks
Chris Allsop, Chief of Staff, Chief Constable’s Office, Greater Manchester Police, 4th Floor, GMP Headquarters, Central Park, Northampton Road, Manchester. M40 5BP
*Previous Press release, dated: 23 October 2019*
Oldham needs its fair share of 20,000 promised police officers
More than twenty thousand police officers have been taken off UK streets over the last ten years. Now the Government announces that thousands of new Police Officers will be recruited. Councillor Howard Sykes MBE wants to make sure Oldham Borough gets a fair share of these replacement crimefighters. The Liberal Democrat Leader on Oldham Council contacted Greater Manchester Police to see how many new officers Oldham Borough will get.
“There have been many announcements both local and national about recruiting new Police Officers. I want to make sure what we are hearing from the Government matches up with local people’s needs and expectations.”
“As leader of the opposition on Oldham Borough Council, I want to ensure that we have enough officers on our streets to deal with the many issues that Oldham Borough faces. If the UK is getting 20,000 new Officers, we need our fair share.”