A further 2,000 West Midlands police jobs could be axed as a result of Government spending cuts.
The figure was revealed by Police Commissioner Bob Jones, who warned that a continued cull of uniformed officers might send into reverse a recent record fall in recorded crime.
Mr Jones said “alarming” proposals for a further 10 per cent cut in police budgets over four years from 2015, outlined recently by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander, posed a real risk
Bob Jones
The West Midlands Police and Crime Panel, a ‘critical friend’ to Police Commissioner Bob Jones, has certainly been critical, if not altogether friendly in its deliberations so far.
Asked to scrutinise Jones’ draft Police and Crime Plan setting out priorities for the coming year, the committee of local councillors posed a killer question about the document’s aspirations: “How will you actually achieve what you are promising to do?”
In a report that could be described as blunt and to the point, Mr Jones was told: “Overall, we felt the plan could have included more detail about how aspirations would be achieved.
“We also note that you assured the panel that precise action plans would underlie all of the deliverables listed in your plan – we look forward to seeing clear links to these action plans in a future iteration, along with some definitive timescales.”
The heavyweight panel includes the leaders and deputy leaders of West Midlands councils and was set up to monitor Jones’s performance as PCC.
The report went on to hit out at “unclear and unambitious” targets to
Birmingham’s Steelhouse Lane police station, one of the oldest in the country, is to close as part of a £17 million savings plan.
The listed building, which dates from the 1890s, still has a Victorian-era custody block in everyday use and the cost of bringing the facilities up to modern standards has been declared prohibitive.
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones confirmed that Steelhouse Lane will be declared surplus to requirements within two years and the building will be sold.
Operational police officers and administrative staff are to be transferred to the nearby Lloyd House police headquarters at Colmore Circus, which will be improved and become the new central police station for Birmingham.
The Steelhouse Lane custody facilities will not be transferred to Lloyd House and will instead move to a purpose-built site elsewhere in Birmingham. West Midlands police custody provision is to be boosted by a ‘super block’ custody suite to be built in Sandwell, Mr Jones said.
Office-based police staff at Civic House and Aqua House in Birmingham will also move to Lloyd House in a wide-ranging shake-up of accommodation which Mr Jones said would
The police authority is dead; long live the police authority.
That, at least, is one way of interpreting the decision by West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones to establish a strategic policing and crime board complete with well-paid assistant commissioners and non-executive members.
Two months into his £100,000-a-year role, Commissioner Jones has decided he needs additional help to “ensure effective engagement and strategic direction” and to hold the police force to account – all tasks which, actually, sit firmly in Mr Jones’s own job description.
There are two clear dangers here for Mr Jones, who still continues to juggle his other role as a Labour city councillor in Wolverhampton with that of police commissioner. The first is that the new board will be regarded by his political opponents as a costly layer of unnecessary bureaucracy; the second is that the appointment of board members may ignite a whole new ‘cronyism’ row and
Bob Jones
West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner Bob Jones is proposing to reject the offer of a £1.9 million Government grant which would allow council tax bills to be frozen.
Mr Jones described the grant, equivalent to one per cent of the force budget, as a “meagre” contribution similar to a “payday loan” which would not deal with financial problems faced by the police.
In a draft budget paper for 2013-14, the Commissioner suggests a three per cent increase in the precept, which is the portion of West Midlands council tax bills which goes to fund the police force.
The increase is equivalent to just 5p a week and means that average Band D households will pay
