My Priorities for Stone, Great Wyrley, and Penkridge: Keeping Staffordshire Safe
I’m proud to have represented Staffordshire for the past fourteen years and it would be an honour to continue being a voice for our region. As the Conservative candidate for Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge, here’s where I stand on the issues that matter to you.
We all want to feel safe at home and on our streets. I’ve spent the last few weeks travelling the length of Stone, Great Wyrley and Penkridge listening to your concerns, and tackling crime is a question that comes up time and time again. Whether it’s eradicating vehicle crime, fighting fly-tipping, or curbing anti-social behaviour, I know that many of you want real and serious action.
So, I won’t beat about the bush: what is my plan to keep Staffordshire safe? First and foremost, I will ensure that there is a visible police presence in every village and town. I’ve already secured a new police base for Penkridge, and I will work with Staffordshire Police to help expand their presence across the region with the help of the 8,000 new officers that we will recruit nationally. Moreover, I will push for a rollout of Hotspot Policing, which has been shown to cut anti-social behaviour by up to 50%.
Secondly, I will crack down on the scourge that is fly-tipping. I will make fly-tipping an offence that carries penalty points against your licence and will continue to advocate for increased fines for those found guilty of fly-tipping. In short, it is my firm belief that we must start to make fly-tippers pay – literally.
On a national level, I will support measures to curb disruptive and extremist protests. Like many of you, I have been shocked by recent scenes of masked mobs outside schools, and of people climbing on our sacred war memorials as if they were at a playground, and of thousand-year-old monuments to our culture being caked in vulgar orange paint. This goes beyond acceptable, peaceful protest – and I will throw my weight behind legislation to tackle this fundamentally un-British behaviour.
Last but certainly not least is confronting rural crime. With their typical disdain for the countryside and rural communities, Labour did not consider this important enough to mention in their manifesto. On the other hand, I know that for communities across as Staffordshire, fighting rural crime should be more than just an afterthought. That’s why I recently hosted a rural crime forum alongside residents, business owners and the police, and will continue to work closely to make our countryside a safer place to live and work.
Meanwhile, Labour’s plan to tackle crime is filled with vague “missions” and dodgy statistics. For example, they proudly state that they will put 13,000 new officers on the beat – but let’s examine this figure more closely. The majority of these officers will be Police Community Support Officers, who are not full-time and do not have the power to arrest. In fact, of the 13,000 officers Labour claim they’ll recruit, only 3,000 will be full-time and with powers of arrest. In contrast, we will recruit 8,000 full-time officers and give them new powers, such as the power to seize knives and track down stolen property.
The truth is that when it comes to tackling crime, Labour simply don’t have it in them to take the real and serious action Staffordshire has asked for. The local Labour Party have previously shown support for both Extinction Rebellion, as well as the mob who toppled the statue of Edward Colston in Bristol. Sir Keir Starmer tried to stop the deportation of foreign criminals who were later convicted of assault and stalking. It seems that the Labour Party have more sympathy for the criminals than for the victims.
But the statistics don’t stop there. People living in areas overseen by Labour Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) are almost twice as likely to be victims of robbery than those living under Conservative PCCs, while knife crime is 44% higher in regions overseen by Labour PCCs. One thing is clear: Labour have given us no reason to believe that they can or even want to be tough on crime.
We must not let Labour steal Staffordshire’s future, as they have done with so many other parts of our country. We must not let them vandalise our communities, countryside, and culture. That’s why a vote for me on July 4th is not only for a safer Stone, Great Wyrley, and Penkridge, but also for a safer Britain.