I've noticed an increased number of residents contacting me with with concerns about crime over the last few weeks – I am in the middle of rolling out a crime survey across the constituency to build up a better picture of the situation.
I have already raised my concerns with the Police and with the government, and most recently met with the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, to discuss policing in Bolton West in more detail.
But I am also concerned that the Police and Crime Commissioner is not allocating resources as fairly as they should be – how is it fair that I have wards without any police presence whatsoever, and yet in other parts of the Bolton borough there are as many as six or seven frontline police? What is going on in the Greater Manchester Mayor’s office? Surely the key role of the Police is to deter crime in the first place and not pick up the pieces afterwards.