Labour Reject Offer of Extra Police Support Officers

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Fri 18th Jul 2003

This week (July 16th) the controlling Labour group on Leeds City Council voted down the prospect of extra uniformed officers on our streets.

Cllr David Morton (Lib Dem, Headingley) said "The proposals I put to Council were deliberately framed to avoid party political point scoring and wouldn't have even committed us to anything. The Police Authority is offering Leeds City Council extra uniformed police support officers if it agrees to pay half the salaries. In return Leeds would get a say on how they were deployed. "

"We'd all like more full police officers but these support officers are proving a real hit in the city centre. You'd think with half the cost being met by someone else the Council would at least agree to talk about it. I'd love to see some of these officers walking round Hyde Park or Kirkstall. Visibility is really important in cracking the fear of crime."

"I'm not going to let this issue drop and will have a crack again in the autumn. Labour's cynicism means we can't get any extra officers this year but we'll try again for next year.