PCSOs

The Government announcement that the total number of PCSOs for Hampshire has been cut from 539 to just 333 will have a negative impact for the County says Conservative candidate for Romsey Caroline Nokes. This is despite a number of Parish Councils making financial contributions to the Hampshire constabulary for individual PCSOs.





The impact is now becoming clear for each of the separate command structures. The western command structure will go down by 37 to just 59 PCSO's making this the the lowest provision in any part of Hampshire. This is despite a number of Parish Councils making financial contributions to the Hampshire constabulary for individual PCSOs. At the same time it has been reported that the number of reported instances of violent crime in Hampshire has gone up by 19% in the latest 6 month period.

Caroline Nokes, has condemned the decision to axe 37 PCSO (Police Community support Officers) from the 96 originally promised for the Hampshire Police western command area, which includes Romsey.

Caroline Nokes said,

"Mr Blair said he was going to be tough on crime and the Home Office made all sorts of claims for these new Police Community Support Officers yet now before we have hardly started to see any of them actually on the beat, almost half of them are are being axed. One can only assume that the Home Office is in a bigger mess than even Dr John Read is prepared to admit.
This failing government really must be held to account before crime is allowed to spiral totally out of control. PCSO's could deal effectively with low level crime and vandalism but this reduction means that for most villages in the Romsey constituency spotting a PCSO will be a very rare occurrence."