Police body facing 50 per cent budget cuts

Police body facing 50 per cent budget cuts

30 September 2015

HUGE budget cuts could put at risk vital anti-social behaviour and community safety programmes, it has been revealed.

The local Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP) is facing a 50 per cent cut in its budget and warnings have been issued that some schemes are in “real jeopardy” and could be slashed.

In January the Newry Mourne and Down PSCP was told it could expect funding of £413,000 for the 2015/16 financial year. But this month it received an offer of £206,766 — 50 per cent of the original figure. Other PCSPs across Northern Ireland are also experiencing similar cuts.

PCSPs are funded by the Department of Justice and the Northern Ireland Policing Board Joint Committee and facilitated by local councils. Set up in April 2012, they are a merger of the old Community Safety Partnerships and District Policing Partnerships, and recently reformed to match the new council boundaries.

A PCSP report to a recent meeting of the council’s Active and Healthy Communities Committee explained there were warnings back in June that they should only fund “inescapable” commitments, with the likelihood of the 50 per cent budget cut being raised shortly afterwards and confirmed this month.

“The imposition of this reduction has had a huge impact on the ability of the PCSP to deliver a holistic, comprehensive action plan and leaves many key interventions in real jeopardy,” the report read.

“In response to, and in order to comply with, this final correspondence PCSP officers have significantly reduced the amount of spend ring-fenced against certain projects (i.e Anti-Social Behaviour Action Plans, Community Safety Wardens Schemes and reactionary interventions.)”

PCSP manager Janine Hillen recommended the committee seek written clarification on the future financial support which would be available for Newry Mourne and Down PCSP.

Councillors agreed that the issue of the 50 per cent reduction should be raised though NILGA and the Partnership Panel (a forum linking key decision makers from central and local government).

Councillor Terry Andrews, who sits on the local PSCP, said he was very disappointed at the scale of the budget cuts.

“The PCSP is an invaluable organisation which should be given adequate funding to do their job,” he said. “It takes time and money to do what they do.

“It is the communities which will be suffering, the people on the ground.

“The PCSP gives people the chance to interact with their political representatives, who report back to the Policing Board and vice versa. The Neighbourhood Watch Scheme is particularly helpful locally.

“We are just having to do the best that we can, more than our best.”

Active and Healthy Communities Committee member, and former PCSP member, councillor Gareth Sharvin, said he was also disturbed by the funding cuts.

“I have seen the benefits of the PCSP to the Downpatrick area,” he said. “The influence and impact it can have with police and community groups working together.

“The one example that comes to me is the work that was carried out in the Meadowlands estate.

“I know former councillor Liam Johnston also did a lot of good work in the Flying Horse and Ballymote areas.”

In a statement after the meeting, a PSCP spokeswoman said of the funding cut: “It will have a knock on effect for programmes that the PCSP would traditionally deliver, however officers are working tirelessly with local groups to ensure that the Safety Strategy for the district is delivered.”

A Department of Justice spokesman said: “Policing and Community Safety Partnerships are jointly funded by the Department of Justice and the Northern Ireland Policing Board (NIPB). Due to the current financial uncertainty facing all Departments, and until there is more certainty around the in-year budget position, 50 per cent of the original PCSP 2015/16 indicative budget has been allocated.

“Department of Justice and NIPB officials are working with Council chief executives and PCSPs to help ensure that the funding made available to PCSPs is used to best effect in delivering against identified policing and community safety priorities.”