Dozen Neighbourhood Warden Posts to be scrapped?

4.48.16pm GMT Tue 25th Nov 2003

More Police Support Officers, but Labour wants to cut back on Neighbourhood Wardens to pay for them!

Liberal Democrats in Leeds, who have been calling for the Council to part fund more Community Police Support Officers in partnership with West Yorkshire Police, have discovered that the Council plans to scrap up to a dozen Neighbourhood Warden Posts to fund their share of the costs.

Cllr David Morton, Lib Dem Cllr for Headingley and a member of the West Yorks Police Authority said "In July I moved a motion at full Council calling for the part funding of more Community Police Support Officers for the City. The Government had provided some match funding for PCSO's, but the Police had funding for 50% of the costs of a further 100. They were looking for partners to pay the other half. The Labour Group on Leeds City Council voted against my proposal to enter into negotiations with the Police in order to see if the Council could find the money to part fund those extra Police Support Officers. But, as has been clear for several months, they have been taking part in behind the scenes negotiations with the Police to do exactly what Liberal Democrats called for. I welcome moves to provide part funding for more Police Support Officers, but I don't welcome the secretive way in which they have gone about those discussions.

"Now it appears they are about to strip away a quarter of the Neighbourhood Wardens provided by the Council without any discussion as to whether the benefits of additional Police Support Officers will be worth the loss of the Wardens. The areas who currently have dedicated Wardens, often partly paid for out of funds allocated to local councillors for use in their communities, are being faced with a 'fait accompli', negotiated behind their backs, by a secretive Labour Group who do not want to have to own up to the embarrassment of admitting that the Liberal Democrat Group were right to call for the Council to put money into making streets and communities safer across Leeds."

Cllr Ralph Pryke, Lib Dem Burmantofts, added "When Lib Dems called for additional Police Support Officers we wanted to see money come from cutting waste in the Councils Budget, not by getting rid of Neighbourhood Wardens. Leeds has 42 Neighbourhood Wardens, the plan is to get rid of over a quarter of them, 12 posts will be lost. There are advantages, this will allow for 24 more Police Support Officers this year, they will be available outside normal working hours and they will have more powers than Neighbourhood Wardens. But there are also major disadvantages, if the Police need the Support Officers for other duties they can be taken off their local patrols at any time, perhaps to be used on the other side of the County. There's also no guarantee that the same Support Officer will be on patrol in the same area on a regular basis, so they won't be able to build up the local contacts and local knowledge that Wardens can.

"Within Leeds City Council there are resources which are badly used. If it had the will the Council could find the money for both Police Support Officers and for Neighbourhood Wardens - we shouldn't be faced with a choice or either one or the other. The Labour Group Leadership appears to be trying to present the Council with a 'done' deal - that's wrong and we should be finding the money to ensure we can keep the Wardens, and fund our share of the Police Support Officers."