Labour MPs respond to Tories’ “disastrous plans” to cut Essex PCSOs

News / Wed 29th Jan 2025 at 04:10pm

TODAY [Wednesday 29th January], Essex’s Labour MPs responded to Roger Hirst’s, Essex Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, announcement that he is planning on cutting all 99 Police and Community Safety Officers (PCSOs) across Essex.

Labour’s MPs across Essex, Bayo Alaba (Southend East and Rochford), David Burton Sampson (Southend West and Leigh), Pam Cox (Colchester), Jen Craft (Thurrock), and Chris Vince (Harlow) have criticised Roger Hirst’s political decision to remove PCSOs from our streets rather than use the funding available to support neighbourhood policing.

Hirst’s decision to cut all 99 PCSOs in Essex comes despite an additional £24.9m in funding being given to Essex Police by the new Labour Government.

The additional funding brings the total funding available to Essex Police, from the national Government, to £431.1 million for 2025-26. The additional funding for Essex Police is part of an extra £1bn in the national Policing Budget, announced by the new Labour Government.

Labour’s new Government is investing £100m to kickstart the delivery of the 13,000 new frontline policing staff that were promised in our manifesto. This is alongside an increase of the Officer Maintenance Grant and a commitment to cover the cost of increased employer National Insurance Contributions for policing staff.

Police and Police, Fire and Crime Commissioners also have the ability to increase police precept to £14 for a Band D property in 2025-26 to cover any additional funding they require.

Despite the additional funding made available to Essex Police, Roger Hirst has made the decision to cut neighbourhood policing at a time of rising distrust of policing.

Labour’s MPs in Essex are, therefore, calling on Roger Hirst to reverse his decision and to meet with them to discuss options for moving forward.

8 Comments for Labour MPs respond to Tories’ “disastrous plans” to cut Essex PCSOs:

adam

2025-01-29 16:29:04

Turns out being in government is hard.

AB

2025-01-29 17:59:30

Obscene politicking by the Tory Essex PCC, he should ashamed.

ratboy

2025-01-29 18:50:34

If I so wished to see Punch and Judy I would go to the seaside so please stop arguing about who is to blame put your heads together and resolve it for the tax payers.This has all the seriousness of a farcical English comedy where Mr Crocodile eats all the candidates on election day!

TonyB

2025-01-29 19:31:31

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.

Lazzi

2025-01-29 20:18:26

Pcso are a huge waste of money. What makes me sick is Labour sending BILLIONS around the world for fake climate change policies and not looking after the British taxpayer. Same old Labour

Saraah

2025-01-29 22:51:14

For Heaven’s sake don’t cut any more of Harlow police’s budget; their cleanup rate is woeful even as it is. And as for the local politicians trying to score points off each other, pretending they’re warming themselves up for the House of Commons, forget it it, you’re either too old and that ship has sailed or you’re too young and your behaviour now will prevent you from progressing any further than where you are now

David Forman

2025-01-30 01:38:49

So are these Labour MPs saying the Chief Constable is lying when he says he has a £5million shortfall? The meeting on February 4th should clear up the mystery of who is correct and how the extra Government money is not enough.