Police bureaucrats spend £70k helping to advertise Southport’s taxi marshall scheme axed in spending cuts
POLICE bureaucrats were forced to spend £70,000 helping to advertise a scheme after it was axed in the cuts.
The Policing Plan for 2011-12 which was posted to thousands of homes across Merseyside in July, advertised the successes of taxi marshalls in Southport.
But taxi marshalls, who were credited with reducing violent crime by two-thirds in the town centre, were scrapped at the start of June to much criticism.
The Merseyside Police Authority produced 650,000 copies of the leaflet.
Councillor Simon Shaw who used to be a member of the Police Authority said: “I’m sure people in Southport would much rather have a taxi marshall scheme working rather than £70,000 being spent on asking their opinion.
“However, apparently the law requires Merseyside Police to circulate the policing plan.”
And Cllr Brenda Porter who helped introduce taxi marshalls in 2003 described the spending as “ridiculous”.
She said: “It is crazy.
If we could get £12,500 we could still keep the marshalls on a Friday and Saturday night.”
Merseyside Police Authority Chief Executive, Paul Johnson, said the scheme had not been axed when the leaflets were produced.
He said: “When we were putting this document together, the Community Safety Partnerships submit text in good faith that it is correct, and we accept it as such.
“As for investing resources into the leaflet, it is a statutory responsibility for all police authorities to produce a Policing Plan Summary each year and distribute one to each household in their area.
“While Merseyside Police Authority views the summary as a useful tool to engage with our communities and let them know what we are planning for the coming year, if we did not produce and distribute it we would be failing to meet one of our statutory duties.”
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