Council Tax and the Police Levy (From Croydon Guardian)

Council Tax and the Police Levy

3:19pm Wednesday 9th January 2008

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The softening up period prior to the announcement of yet another year’s exorbitant increase in Council Tax and the Police Levy has started in the media. So far, unless I overlooked it, The Staines Local Guardian has spared it's readers from the opening 'whinges' from those who waste so much of our hard earned money each and every year. My police record should already show that I believe that the production and distribution of the unnecessary and glossy 'Policing Surrey' magazine can in no way be justified. That is one saving that could be made releasing money and personnel for real policing work out on the streets.
A BBC programme, in which various people argued that there was a need for more money to be spent on the care of children, particularly disabled children, reminded me of other money Surrey Police have wasted thoughtlessly and unnecessarily.
To refresh my memory I paid a visit to Sunbury police station and found a whole catalogue of thoughtlessness and wastefulness.
1. A long disabled access ramp.
2. Hand rails on the flight of only three steps.
3. A large shiny chrome name plate, above the whole entrance complete with lettering unreadable from most, even close up, viewpoints. (This sign, on a relatively large police station is surpassed, in both size and presumably cost, by the equally shiny and unreadable golden coloured sign above the front of the very tiny Ashford police station.)
4. An emergency phone cabinet, with a paper notice stuck to it's front, hidden in a recess outside the station door.
5. Another faded paper notice, of opening hours, much of it in small hard to read type stuck to the station door at a height suitable for a standing person but no use for any wheelchair bound disabled person who has struggled up the expensive ramp.
6. A "mind the step" notice on the wall far back from the steps.
7. A half empty very expensive notice board with large stainless steel tubular supports and presumably expensive vandal proof safety glass, again located where not easy to read. Again topped by an unnecessary expensive sign saying "With You, Making Surrey Safer". And this in the County of Middlesex!

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8. A pointless notice saying "Surrey Police' near the west corner of the building.
9. At least two CCTV camera's, neither of them pointed at the large diameter drain pipe which a Chief Constable might be tempted to climb to test station security.
10. Untidy neglected window boxes. Once tended in police time?

All of the above expensive unnecessary clutter is on a police station, a century or more old, that is only open for 35 hours of the 168 hours in the week, or 40 hours if the one person in attendance gives up his lunch break.

All of this on a police station that is set well back and hidden from one direction on the passing main road.

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Vegetation on the railway bridge approach embankment now hides the, probably original, elegant blue lamp no doubt converted from gas and soon to be fitted with an expensive low energy light bulb requiring protective clothing, and more, whenever it has to be changed.

This is just one police station. Just how much money has Surrey Police wasted in the few years they have had responsibility for policing Spelthorne?

As Surrey Police are reorganising there is probably even less need for Staines Police Station. I suggest that large very expensive building, located and designed for use by the Metropolitan Police Force, should be sold of for redevelopment and the funds used to reduce the Surrey Police Levy.