No matter whether you are in our towns or our smallest village, young or old, local or just visiting, everyone across our area shares the basic want to be able to go about their daily life without being impacted by crime.
Fortunately, many local people can. With crime down across Grantham and Bourne since 2019, we must continue to work to ensure that this remains the case. Central to this, of course, is our continued support of the men and women of Lincolnshire Police.
I was pleased recently to be able to join fellow Lincolnshire Members of Parliament to meet with the new Chief Constable of Lincolnshire Police, Paul Gibson, and our Police and Crime Commissioner, Marc Jones, in Parliament. We thanked them for their work and discussed a range of ways we can offer more support.
Of course, alongside providing officers with the powers they need through national legislation, a key part of backing our police must be ensuring that they have the tools and resources they need to do their job effectively and tackle crime right across our area.
For those in our villages and our farmers, crimes such as theft of tools and machinery, fly-tipping, or hare coursing can devastate not just local businesses, but the beautiful natural environment that we are so lucky to be surrounded by.
I know that Lincolnshire Police have been working hard to crackdown on rural crime, and I have written here before about the work of our excellent Rural Crime Action Team (RCAT), who I had the privilege of joining on patrol.
Further to this, just this week, I met with the Countryside Alliance and the National Rural Crime Unit to discuss how farmers and rural businesses can better mark their tools and equipment to assist the police in recovery of their property and in locking-up offenders following incidences of theft.
Where issues are shared with me, I will do what I can to raise these in Parliament. Following conversations with the RCAT, when I heard first-hand of the increase in numbers of dangerous dogs across our region and nationally, I was proud to strongly back the previous Government in banning XL bullies.
For those in our towns especially, I know that anti-social behaviour in particular can also create significant problems, and nationally we have seen this, from damage to children’s parks and graffiti to the unacceptable situation where residents may feel unsafe when in their own town centres.
On this issue too, our local police are on the case. At the end of September, I joined PCSO Everitt on one of her patrol routes around the Earlesfield estate in Grantham to catch-up with her and our wider neighbourhood policing teams on their work and the specific issues in Grantham.
An important aspect of this is visibility. I was pleased that the uplift delivered by the previous Government led to more police officers on our streets, and I understand and share the reassurance many feel when they see ‘bobbies on the beat’. Crucially, this visibility doesn’t just reassure our community, it encourages communication between residents and the police, supporting the work of our local police as they take action.
Across both our towns and our villages, I will always support our local police, pushing for them to be provided with both the powers and the tools they need to do their job and keep us safe.
