Panorama’s Southport crime story may make concerning viewing says Labour

Panorama’s Southport crime story may make concerning viewing says Labour

The news that Southport will feature in a Panorama programme about areas being “blighted” by crime is a worrying sign of the difficulties local policing now faces due to cuts, according to the town’s local Labour party.

The programme will reportedly feature a number of local businesses that have been hit by a wave of crime over the last year or more and will detail a range of offences from ram-raids on shops to charity boxes being repeatedly stolen. One cafe owner details how his premises was burgled six times in a single month.

Liz Savage, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Southport, says that while the town is still relatively safe, the cuts to local police have had an effect:

” Southport does not feel the town it once was with regard to crime and safety and I firmly believe that it is largely down to cuts in policing. Merseyside Police has lost one in four officers and hundreds of PCSO’s, that has a massive impact on community policy. I was astounded when Southport’s Tory MP Damien Moore recently voted with the government for yet more cuts at a time when crime is rising. It simply beggars belief.”

One of the premises featured in the programme is Smithies News on Hoghton St, who owner tells Panorama how his shop was ram-raided and says it took two days before a police community support officer visited.

For Labour’s Liz Savage it’s highly worrying:

” If that’s the case something is going badly wrong, it’s not the fault of Merseyside Police, who are severely overstretched having lost around a thousand officers and 600 PCSO’s due to cuts made by the Lib-Dems and Tories. It’s the same across the country, if you cut £2.3 billion and counting from police funding then something has to give and what is giving is public safety and rising crime levels.

Neither party wants to accept they are part of this problem but I believe the public know better. It’s why we see Damien Moore trying to claim the credit for the recent knife wands funding decision he had no part in, they want to appear tough on crime but want to do it on the cheap. Sadly, it can’t be done.

This is why we are also now seeing the Tories now offloading the bill on to local council-tax payers instead. So we have a situation where local residents are having to pay more council tax for 1,000 fewer officers thanks to the Lib-Dems and Tories. It’s appalling and our community is suffering as a result. I’m sure many local residents will be watching the programme with interest.”