On Monday 2 March 2015 the City of Lincoln’s Member of Parliament, Karl McCartney MP, welcomed the Minister for Policing, Criminal Justice and Victims, Rt Hon Mike Penning MP, to Lincoln for a meeting with Chief Constable Neil Rhodes and Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Alan Hardwick.
The meeting, which took place at Lincolnshire Police’s Headquarters just outside the City Centre, gave Karl and the City and County’s policing leaders another opportunity to draw the Policing Minister’s attention to the continued pressures on funding that Lincolnshire Police face.
This has resulted in a decision to send in a Home Office Task Force to the County.
The fact finding team will arrive in Lincolnshire next week to assess how the police operate and listen to the views of Lincolnshire Police on how to address the funding shortfall it faces in the next few years. The Force faces a funding gap of about £7 million to balance the books by 2016-2017.
Karl McCartney MP said: “It was a pleasure to host our Minister of State for the Police, Mike Penning, in Lincoln and to accompany him to a meeting with Lincolnshire’s Chief Constable, Neil Rhodes, and Police and Crime Commissioner, Alan Hardwick. This, of course, follows on from the meeting we, as Lincolnshire’s MPs, had with him in Westminster earlier this year.
“We talked about both the immediate and future funding of our Police Service and how we can best balance providing an effective local Police Force, whilst ensuring medium and long term financial stability.
“The Minister announced that a Home Office Task Force would be sent to Lincolnshire next week to assess how our local Police Force operates and ascertain the views of Officers on how to address the funding shortfall it faces. I am delighted by the Minister’s response which shows that he is taking very seriously his Parliamentary colleagues, the Chief Constable and Police and Crime Commissioner’s concerns.
“We also noted that, despite the continued pressures on funding, we have seen crime fall by c.20 per cent in Lincolnshire thanks to the hard work of all police officers and their civilian colleagues.
“I shall continue to work closely with my Ministerial colleagues, the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner to ensure that our City and County is as safe as possible for everyone who lives, works and visits here.”
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For further information, please contact Karl McCartney MP at [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> / 020 7219 7221.