Rural councillors feel ‘short changed’ over PCSO plan as switch from wards to sectors rolls out

Councillors have expressed their unhappiness at plans to change PCSO deployment in Wrexham, with rural councillors saying they feel like their wards are ones being hit by cuts.

Wrexham Council are planning to cut the number of PCSO’s they pay for from nine to four, along with funding a part time (non-police) town centre warden.

Currently as part of a ‘service level agreement’ with North Wales Police, the local authority contributes up to 25 per cent of the salary costs of 36 full time equivalent PCSO’s (police community support officers) across Wrexham. This equates to nine full-time equivalent posts.

However last autumn as part of its difficult decisions budget process, Wrexham Council unveiled proposals to scrap the funding completely by October 2018 – bringing forward the end of the funding agreement from March 2019.

An ‘alternative proposal’ was later put forward, with a funding reduction of 50 per cent from Wrexham Council, rather than scrapping completely.

Yesterday Chief Inspector Mark Williams from North Wales Police and Lead Councillor Hugh Jones took questions from safeguarding, communities and well-being scrutiny committee members over the new plans for PCSO’s in Wrexham.

Cllr Jones explained that the new plan will mean there is ‘flexibility to deploy PCSO’s where demand may be’.

Insp Williams was aware of the crowd he was addressing, preempting the question from councillors as to why they do not always get a PCSO at their community council meetings, pointing out that they are operational staff and therefore events can overtake meetings. One example was given where a child went missing, and that was prioritised over attending an Acton meeting.

Cllr I David Bithell probed the communications process under the new setup, and was told that currently there are issues if a PCSO is on leave, off sick or even drops their mobile phone. A system has been recently trialled in Caia where there is a single email and telephone number accessible by multiple PCSOs and more senior staff to ensure no information is missed, and that process is being rolled out across the various new ‘sectors’.

The previous ward view of councillors appeared to clash with the ‘sector’ view of policing, the latter being in line with community council areas. Although wards will still be covered by PCSO’s it will not be a strict 1:1 ratio, rather a sector having one or more PCSO’s that will interact with the councillors.

Councillors expressed their good working relationships with some PCSO’s and Cllr Paul Blackwell in particular appeared hesitant to move to a sector based system where that sole PCSO would be shared with other areas, and would not be their only point of contact.

Cllr Brian Cameron pointed out ‘anti social behaviour is rising’ in Caia, pointing to some recent deliberate grass fires, and questioned the logic in reducing the PCSO allocation in that area.

Cllr Jones countered by saying: “The important point is they will deploy to the point of need. The day to day deployment will depend on where the demand is.”

Insp Williams explained that although the numbers are down in some areas ‘the proportion of the overall number will be shared out as it is’, pointing to Caia as the example, having the same percentage cover as it does now. Insp Williams also noted that the current demand based system already seemed to be working as PCSO’s from Wrexham Rural had been shipped in to help deal with the recent fires.

Cllr John Pritchard queried over coverage with larger rural wards, and enquired on shift patterns to ensure maximum cover, with Cllr Trevor Bates asking on vacancy levels.

In a detailed answer Insp Williams told the meeting it was not possible to give a 24/7 PCSO service with the current resources, and said there were a few PCSO vacancies in Wrexham. After ‘heavy recruitment’ by North Wales Police and the PCSO role being seen as a stepping stone, it appears numbers are lower than usual.

With the overall proposals being reviewed in the context of Wrexham Council budget cuts, Cllr Jones was quick to point out that if there were any vacant roles, Wrexham Council would not be paying for them.

Cllr Derek Wright firmly challenged the rural allocations, disputing the ‘current’ figures before the committee and asking if the explanation of using the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation as a factor to decide on PCSO placements how Plas Madoc had less PCSOs ‘than more affluent areas’.

Llangollen Rural’s councillor, Rondo Roberts, echoed the comments saying: “We feel like we are being let down and short changed.”

Cllr Roberts went on to explain how he had raised incidents with PCSO’s and North Wales Police via other means several times with disappointing outcomes, with one case being revisited but still dropped ‘when evidence was there’.

Cllr Roberts described a lacklustre update to a community council that was ‘just a side of A4’ and the person from outside the ward who attended to presenting the policing update ‘did not know what he was reading’.

The grim overview ended with the comment: “The system is failing.”

Cllr Jones said he expected the new plans to help solve issues via ‘improvement to services with less resources’, noting that although the deprivation index was ‘used as a benchmark’, ‘there will be a demand response on where the demand is’.

The committee agreed to get an update on progress of the new way of working in 12 months time.

An attempt by Cllr Cameron to bring the reporting forward by what in effect would be just two months was rejected after Cllr Hugh Jones spoke about how he preferred to see police ‘on the front line’ rather than ‘doing reports’.

Cllr Cameron said: “I would normally agree, but in this case we asked people their thoughts on the budget and this came back strongly, it is about confidence. People want to know what is going on, and do not want to wait 12 months.”

Cllr Jones said: “You do not have to wait 12 months it can be tomorrow”, appearing to answer in terms of how Councillors can interact with police, rather than the public update.

All of the committee, aside from Cllr Cameron, agreed with the 12 month reporting schedule.

Top pic: Police constables, who have powers in excess of PCSOs.