Lincolnshire Voice

Below is a letter I received in November from Chief Inspector Housley at Lincolnshire Police, which was addressed to all councillors in the district of North Kesteven:

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Following this letter, I sent a reply which is as follows:

Chief Inspector Mark Housley
West Divisional HQ
West Parade
Lincoln
LN1 1YP

17th December 2010

Dear Sirs

Further to your letter dated 10th November (copy enclosed) which was sent to councillors in North Kesteven outlining their supposed roles in “community safety,” I felt compelled to respond.

In your letter you state that Parish Councils should work with childrens services and others to engage with children to prevent crime such as anti-social behaviour. Unfortunately, the village in which I now live, no longer has its own school or in fact its own respected village bobby, due to the continual decline and cut backs over many years.

I do not believe that the Police Institution was set up to allow crime to get out of control and then for it to delegate responsibility onto councillors and “partners.” Whilst I cannot speak for others, I myself just want the police to do their duty which is to protect the public, catch criminals and make sure they are sentenced and see that justice is served. I appreciate lenient sentences and issues of funding are not within your remit and that the blame for those clearly lies with successive governments and subversive “charities.”

At a recent parish council meeting it was reported that rural crime was going up, especially thefts of fuel. I wondered what response we would have from the Police to deter these crimes. Unbelievably (well not really when you know the agenda), upon visiting Lincoln I saw atleast 2 officers with a “tractor” painted in police livery and a truck, intended to raise peoples awareness of rural crime. I am not sure how much this actually cost the tax payer but I am sure that it would have paid for atleast 1 or 2, (if not more) full time policemen to investigate rural crime and catch criminals, which I think is better than having officers on a jolly with a tractor in a place that no longer has its own cattle market because it has been built on!

In the district of North Kesteven during the last year or so we have had many crimes including murder and rape which is going to continue to get worse until the Police, Courts and Education systems go back to basics, much as we had years back when crime was considerably less than today. It is my opinion that with continuing levels of inward migration into one of the fastest growing districts in Britain and with Lincolnshire Polices latest cutbacks these crimes are just going to escalate and no amount of engagement is going to stop this. You could call this talking up crime, however, I believe it to be truthful and inevitable.

As for peoples perceptions of crimes, it was reported in the local media some time back, that Lincolnshire Police “screen out” 1 in 6 crimes now, so is it any wonder that some people do not even bother to report crimes as they know nothing will happen. This is the opinion of many people I have personally spoken to so when it is reported that crime is going down it is generally the case that some people have literally given up.

Perhaps if time, funds and resources from the police actually went into dealing with crime rather than working to a common purpose with “partners” then things would be a lot better.

The slogan on the truck reads More action, less crime – yes please!

Please feel free to take this letter up with your superiors.

Yours Faithfully

Cllr Michael Clayton

Unfortunately I was not afforded the decency of a reply - perhaps the truth hurts.