Harlow MP Chris Vince: The Tories have chosen to make all our PCSOs redundant
Chris Vince / Wed 29th Jan 2025 at 09:58am
HARLOW MP Chris Vince has hit back at plans by the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner to make all of Harlow and Essex’s PCSOs redundant.
Chris Vince said: “Politics is all about choices, and I want to make it clear that the Conservative Police and Crime Commissioner Roger Hirst has chosen to make all the PCSOs in Essex redundant.
The truth is Mr Hirst has received an extra £25 million for the year 2025-2026 he has also chosen to raise his precept this year by the maximum amount. Other Police and Crime Commissioners in the region are not choosing to do this. I urge Roger Hirst to go back to the books and reconsider this damaging decision.
“PCSOs play a vital role in our communities. The residents of Harlow will rightly be concerned by this decision. So I urge Roger Hirst once again to reconsider”.
AB
2025-01-29 18:08:00
PCSOs are vital to frontline policing, and allowances are valuable to all staff. The PCC is playing politics with public safety with these disgusting cuts. Job applications from surrounding forces are circulating among Essex Police staff.
Sodthisforalark
2025-01-29 20:55:41
It is a shame, they can be so useful, there was a fab lady in Old Harlow who was one that lost her job years ago in that round of redundancies. There also used to be a bunch at Harlow who'd do a lot of community policing, when time allowed in between crimes and they were an excellent team to go with troubles in your area. I guess, like everything in the UK, there has been a steady decline for years in our services across everything.
TonyB
2025-01-29 22:28:05
Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Roger Hurst showed little regard for PCSOs in a previous meeting held in Harlow. He decided to move all the PCSOs to an area of Harlow with high levels of anti-social behaviour. The PCSOs had local knowledge of their areas but not anywhere outside of their area, sort of a “local bobby”; they could put names to troublemakers in their area. By the next meeting held in Harlow, common sense had returned to the management, and the PCSOs had been returned to their areas of policing. Now, he wants to remove totally the local knowledge. Harlow will now return to the “crash bang” policing I experienced when patrol cars stopped me on three occasions to ask for directions when walking my dog. The patrol cars had been drafted in together with the desk sergeant from Brentwood. One detective even asked for geographical help when conducting a drugs raid. The fire part of the Police, Fire, and Crime Commissioners' work is also worrying and should concern anyone who lives in a high building. Remember the fire at The Three Horseshoes? An aerial Ladder Platform had to come from Chelmsford, and the next major fire at a Nazeing Wearhouse on the 15th Jan 2025 the aerial Ladder Platform came from Grays.
David Forman
2025-02-12 22:54:40
For clarity, Roger Hirst's view that the original government funding settlement was not enough is a view he expressed also on behalf of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC), which represents all PFCCs in the UK. Their statement of December 23 last year explains how last year's pay award is only partly covered by this year's settlement, plus fails to meet other cost pressures. See APCC statement at https://www.apccs.police.uk/latest-news/apcc-response-to-the-police-funding-settlement/
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