Policing in Hertfordshire

Mr. Oliver Heald (North-East Hertfordshire): I will say a few words, 
as we have time available. I start by congratulating my hon. Friend 
the Member for Hertsmere (Mr. Clappison) on obtaining this Adjournment 
debate. It could not be more timely, as the effects of the settlement 
from the Government become known. My hon. Friend the Member for 
South-West Hertfordshire (Mr. Page) mentioned the specials. On 
Saturday, I was in Royston with the specials, trying to advertise the 
work that they do as part of "specials week". I pay tribute to the 
eight officers in Royston and 

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district who do such a fantastic job in supporting the regular officers.
They enable operations such as the bike marking that I saw on Saturday,
and they allow patrols on the streets of Royston, Baldock and Letchworth
to take place. Without the specials, it would be a sorry picture. They
help to provide a much more visible police presence than would be possible if we were to rely solely on the regular officers. 

In the paper this week, I noticed that the leader of the Labour group on
North Hertfordshire district council-Councillor David Kearns-was outlining
his concerns about antisocial behaviour in the Grange estate in
Letchworth. Elsewhere in the constituency-in Royston and Baldock-concerns are regularly expressed to me about antisocial behaviour. Recently, in Buntingford, the deputy manager of the Co-op was assaulted when he refused to serve alcohol to youngsters. His mother attended my surgery on Fridayto express how worried she was that a small market town such as Buntingford suffered from such incidents. She expressed concerns about law and order and the behaviour of young people, and made the point that there is not an adequate police presence in our area. 

I have the highest regard for our local constabulary. I have spoken to
Chief Superintendent Andy Wright about the incident over the new year in
which Mr. Llewellyn was assaulted. The chief superintendent is doing his
best, with extra patrols, to try to reinforce the sense of public safety
and order in Buntingford. However, such problems are not new: during the
past four or five years, I have received regular complaints about the lack
of officers in that rural division of Hertfordshire. It is not good enough
that we have such vacancy levels, which are not caused by a lack of
recruitment; retention is the real problem in Hertfordshire. 

I have made the point to Ministers over and again that, because of the
railway or the good transport links that we have with London, officers
live in Hertfordshire and work for the Metropolitan police in London. Many
officers go over the border into the Met area because of the incentive to
do so-the extra £6,000 makes such a difference. 

I should also like to point out that rural areas are often discounted. It
is often said that they are very safe and that the area that I am talking
about is the safest part of one of the safest counties, but when
burglaries occur in remote rural areas, the feeling of vulnerability is
extreme for those who live there. They are a long way from help; it is not
like the situation in a town, which is bad enough. Burglary is a very
serious invasion of privacy, but it is really very worrying in rural
areas. 

Mr. Prisk: I am sure that my hon. Friend will be familiar with the village
of Hunsden, which is further south in east Hertfordshire, and those who
live there share that sense of vulnerability. Every week for the past six
months, the parish council has reported to me different incidents, some
involving people coming from Harlow. That sense of vulnerability is
underscored by the fact that the elderly often suffer the most. 

Mr. Heald: It is particularly sad that elderly people, many of whom have
been through the conflicts of the 20th century and survived, should now be
worrying, 

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in their 80s and 90s, about going out of the door early in the evening.
The only way to tackle that is with a combination of the sort of targeted,
intelligence-led policing that I am sure the Minister supports. Of course
we need that, but we also need an adequate, visible police presence on the
streets. The fact is that Hertfordshire is 200 special constables short. I
did my bit to try to recruit a few more, but we could do with more. We
have often been 200 regular officers short. Although figures are given for
the police force's strength, we are always down on those figures because
we lose officers at such a rate. 

We in North-East Hertfordshire face another particularly rural problem:
illegal hare coursing. Gangs of up 50 men have often come up to the area
in the past to gamble on illegal hare coursing, which creates huge public
order problems. Policing something like that takes a large number of
officers. After a campaign in the early 1990s, it was possible to put much
more police effort into tackling illegal hare coursing in the Royston and
Buntingford area, and the problem pretty well subsided. However, in the
past year or so, there have been about 90 incidents involving illegal hare
coursing and it is becoming more of a problem. 

Those policing illegal hare coursing need four-wheel drive vehicles, as
well as a considerable number of officers skilled in dealing with what is
a difficult public order problem. When working against a background where
recruitment and retention is difficult, the officers coming through are
still new and learning what they should do and where resources are thinly
stretched because there are not enough officers in the county and because
the Government have provided a hopelessly inadequate settlement, it
becomes difficult to deal with some of those peculiar rural problems, such
as illegal hare coursing. 

I should like to end my speech by saying how much I support my hon. Friend
the Member for Hertsmere in raising this issue, by paying tribute to the
work of the chief constable, Paul Acres, and the chairman of the police
authority, Peter Holland, who is about to retire after many years
excellent service in that role and by telling the Minister that it is
sometimes necessary, even in a peaceable county like Hertfordshire, to
have enough money to do the job properly, and we really did not get what
we needed in the latest police settlement.