A HARLOW councillor who is also the Labour candidate at the next Essex Police Crime Commissioner elections has also expressed his concerns at the lack of police attendance at an unauthorised gathering in the town.

Cllr Chris Vince said: ‘Clearly the events of Friday night raise a number of questions about the appropriate nature of the nightly renting out of residential properties, not least during this pandemic.

“It is disappointing that the police have passed this issue on to the council who can only act retrospectively whereas the police would have had been more effective at dispersing the crowd there and then. Of course we must take the police’s statement about having other higher risk issues in the town to deal with at face value.

“However, I think it once again asks questions about their capacity. Although the current PFCC will take credit for increasing police numbers we must remember these additional officers does not make up for the cuts that we have seen since 2010.

“In 2010 there were over 3600 front line officers across our county compared to 3187 as of September last year, a cut of over 400!’

https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/SN00634/SN00634.pdf