SPEECH TO FULL MEETING OF BURY COUNCIL TONIGHT

Mr Mayor,The Liberal Democrat Group put this motion before Council tonight in an attempt to raise an issue in the borough that could ultimately have serious consequences for safety and crime detection in the area and therefore ultimately undermine the Bury Safe partnership. Greater Manchester Police are either heading for or in a crisis depending on your stand point. 

They are currently heading towards a £5m overspend on their current £560m budget and are in the middle of a radical shake up.Just before Christmas Chief Constable Peter Fahy and his deputy Simon Byrne imposed a 90 day action plan to improve performance. This includes:

• Getting more officers on the beat
• Cutting beaurocracy
• Targeting the worst performing divisions

Failure to succeed in improving GMP performance could lead to Home Office intervention.The affects of the budget overspend could lead to 450 jobs going, potentially 300 officers, although this is hoped to be mitigated by investment in new improved IT systems which is hoped will free up 200 officers from paperwork for frontline services.In addition 2 police stations (neither in Bury) are scheduled to be closed. On top of that there is real fear that GMP could even face a grant reduction which if not compensated by s significantly improved precept, and I doubt it would be, could lead to a £30m plus shortfall – the real disaster scenario. 

So what it will mean if these cuts are implemented is that in absolute terms there will be 100 less police officers and about 150 other positions in addition to two stations closing. Part of the problem faced by GMP is that have struggled to control spending on devolved division budgets. In addition they are now operating under a 3 year precept agreement which whilst it does carry significant benefits for financial management and accountability aligned to targets and performance management, significantly the big big downside is the difficulty in absorbing the financial implications of responding to high profile investigations and unforcasted events. 

Now before you think I’m knocking GMP let me be absolutely clear –  I am not. What I am outlining here is a situation identified and being responded to by Peter Fahy and GMP themselves.  

But whilst GMP are addressing these issues as best they can and with a determination to not only bring their spending under control but to use the opportunity to introduce improvements, they are being hampered, I believe unfairly, by the financial funding formula applied by the Home office. Since 2002 the Government funding formula has cost Greater Manchester £81.2m. In 2009/10 this amounted to £15m alone. An astonishing figure which itself would have funded 500 permanent police officers. 

The Government giveth and the Government tacketh away! Now a key aspect of funding formulas is surely to provide a mechanism by which authorities can be funded fairly.  

Is it fair that under this funding formula Surrey Police have received an extra £56m? Is it fair that GMP has to face cutting police numbers and closing stations when a fairer funding distribution would have provided an extra £81m? 

So we have a situation where Greater Manchester Police are being denied access to funds that they reasonably could be expected to have access to too improve their performance, whilst at the same time the Home Office is threatening to intervene in the running of the force if GMP doesn’t improve its performance in the 90 day deadline. The late Michael Todd, the previous Chief Constable, had set a target of 11000 officers back in 2004, however we have only made slow progress towards that widely supported ambition, reaching 8232 last year, from 8042 in 2004. 

If these cuts are implemented it would set us back to about the same number of officers as 2006, and the lowest level since 2003. I am sure there isn’t a member of this Council that wouldn’t want to see 11000 police officers on the streets of greater

Manchester, with the appropriate increase that would mean for Bury residents.

 I see a real danger developing here, that in order to deal with ongoing financial pressures, we could end up being more reliant on PCSO’s whilst cutting Police Officer numbers. A development that would increase the strain on police officers across the conurbation and make the force less responsive or over exposed if major incidents were to occur. So this is an opportunity here before us tonight.  

An opportunity to stand with GMP, to show support for this potential crisis.  To show support for the residents of Greater Manchester who deserve a properly, fairly funded crime fighting force. And to send a message, hopefully an all party message from Bury Council that this authority expects nothing less than a fair funding settlement for our Police partners. 

GMP are doing their bit in responding to budgetary pressures and striving to safeguard and protect our residents. It’s time we backed the Police and sent a message to the Home Secretary that we expect the Government to back them with a fair deal also.  Now is the time for the Home Secretary to address this issue once and for all. I urge you to support the motion.