I do regular walk-abouts to find out what the top issues are for people. So many people raise the issue of dangerous off-road bikes flying around estates or up and down footpaths.
Too often the crimes which affect people and businesses most are dismissed as low-level. But it doesn’t feel low-level when people need to put up with daily lawbreaking or parents need to worry about where their kids can play. And it doesn’t feel low level when it’s our town centres being plagued by anti-social behaviour and thefts, or our neighbourhoods blighted by drugs.
For far too long, the last Government wrote off those crimes, and disregarded how they made ordinary people feel. That’s why the Labour Government has announced tough new action in our Crime and Policing Bill, which now continues its next stage through Parliament.
The Bill will restore trust, and reduce serious harm. We’ll put 13,000 additional neighbourhood police and PCSOs on our streets – including dozens more here in West Cumbria – and we’ll give the police new powers to take swift action to stamp out anti-social behaviour.
We know that more visible and active policing works because we’ve seen the results here in West Cumbria over the last eight months. The Labour Government provided our excellent Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner, David Allen, with £1 million for Operation Enhance, which has seen increased police patrols in anti-social behaviour hotspots in Whitehaven, Workington and Cleator Moor. The results have shown a drop of between 30% and 80% in reported incidents across those three areas compared to the previous year. Further Government funding has been provided to continue those enhanced patrols from April.
Officers will have more tools in their arsenal thanks to our Crime and Policing Bill, which introduces Respect Orders to crack down on repeat offenders of anti-social behaviour. It enables the police to catch and crush off-road bikes used illegally more easily – something officers here will be well equipped to do thanks to the drones funded by Commissioner Allen.
It also gives the police special warrantless powers of entry to premises so they can move fast and take back stolen phones, vehicles and agricultural equipment. It expands police drug testing powers so more drug users can be supported into treatment. And it ends the Tories’ ludicrous £200 limit on shoplifting, which has left so much shop theft ignored.
I will work with the Commissioner, the police and communities to make our streets safer again. We will never write off crimes that make people afraid. And we will take back our town centres from the thieves and thugs.
We were elected to deliver change: we are working everyday to ensure West Cumbria is secure and safe.
Josh MacAlister MP 