I’ve outdone myself on my alliterative title. Anyway, the Sutton Guardian published letters from me and Eric in response to a letter from the lead councillor Graham Tope which was somewhat short on explanations as to why we won’t have our parks policed properly over the summer despite the new scheme having been discussed since last year.
Extract from my letter:-
Additional funding for our Safer Neighbourhood Teams is always welcome in the long term, of course, but unless this extra money can sprout legs, drive cars and nick antisocial yobs within days – what additional reassurance will this give to users of our parks and open spaces over the summer? Very little, I imagine.
The charge of scaremongering that the Liberal Democrats hurl at anyone who might question their decisions has now lost any credibility. When will they just swallow their pride and say, “we were wrong, we are sorry”?
Extract from Eric’s letter:-
The gap between the Parks Police finishing on March 31 and the Met Police being trained to cover the park duties could be up to six months, which would take us to the end of the summer.
It was a senior police officer that gave this timetable, not a scaremongering politician.
We should not be increasing the workload on the Safer Neighbourhood Teams, who at this time of the year are fully committed with their own duties.