Hayes’ plea to help underfunded police

MP John Hayes has met the Government’s policing minister to call for fairer funding for Lincolnshire police.

Mr Hayes was accompanied to the Tuesday evening meeting by chief constable Neil Rhodes and police and crime commissioner Alan Hardwick, who have already called on the Home Secretary to look at the way money is allocated to police forces.

They warned that under the current formula Lincolnshire Police would soon be on the “edge of viability”.

Mr Rhodes warned that the county might have to lose the equivalent of 236 officers to meet a predicted £10.4million spending shortfall by 2017/18.

Mr Hayes said: “I have campaigned throughout successive governments for fairer funding for Lincolnshire Police.

“The circumstances in Lincolnshire are ‘particular’, such as its sparsity, size and rurality, and providing a public service such as policing is very challenging.

“The existing formula tends to reward places with high levels of crime and serious crime and we don’t have either.

“Because Lincolnshire does not loom large in the crime statistics we don’t get the funding we need to do the job and that is what myself and the chief constable and police and crime commissioner are arguing for.

“This meeting was about asking again for a change to the funding assumption.

“It was not about funding for this year, as that is already set, but it was about the future and how much Lincolnshire will receive in coming years.

“We can’t go on year on year with a formula that doesn’t fit in Lincolnshire.

“The chief constable has my full support in his efforts to achieve maximum funding for the service we need.”

Mr Hayes went on to praise the work that the police do in keeping Lincolnshire safe.

He said modern policing was not just about solving crimes, but also about reassuring the public and dealing with low level nuisance that concern people and affect their quality of life.

He said seeing the “bobby on the beat” was still important to people and also helped deter crime and anti-social behaviour.

Mr Hayes added: “Lincolnshire Police has my full support. It is not fair to expect them to do more without the resources.”