ST HELENS’ police chief has resisted calls to commit more officers to Newton-le-Willows police station once the force boosts staffing numbers.

Merseyside Police is currently looking to recruit 200 officers as part of the Home Office’s promise to increase officer numbers by 20,000 nationally over the next three years.

Superintendent Tami Garvey-Jones from Merseyside Police told councillors in St Helens this week that this could potentially rise to 600 over the next couple of years.

But Supt Garvey-Jones said the force still requires savings of £18m over the coming years, on top of the £100m it has lost over the last decade.

Speaking at St Helens Council’s safer communities overview and scrutiny panel, Supt Garvey-Jones said a bid has gone into the government for an uplift in officers, with St Helens receiving a proportionate amount once the numbers have been confirmed.

Supt Garvey-Jones said: “As you know through Boris’ [Johnson] pledge, we are getting an uplift in police officers, of which we’ve put a bid in locally to uplift our local police officers going forward.

“They’re top-level decisions and numbers are yet to be determined, but we are expecting an uplift of officers, and St Helens seeing its data proportion to that, which is welcomed.”

In February 2019, Merseyside Police announced it was considering reducing the opening hours at a number of stations in the borough, including Newton-le-Willows police station, due to staff shortages.

Merseyside Police Superintendent Mark Stanton said at the times that the station was one of the “lowest demand” stations across the force.

Political leaders hit out at the decision and Merseyside Police quickly backtracked on the decision.

Then in April, Merseyside Police announced that the general enquiry office at Newton-le-Willows police station would be open from 10am and 6pm Monday to Friday.

Newton Labour councillor Seve Gomez-Aspron opposed the original decision to cut the station’s hours and on Monday he bemoaned the lack of police visibility in the area.

He said Newton-le-Willows police station has the smallest presence it’s had since it was built and claimed it is contributing to public perceptions that the area is not as safe as it has been in the past.

To address this, he asked Supt Garvey-Jones whether more officers can be stationed at Newton-le-Willows police station once the new officers are in post.

“If we are having a bid for officers then I would hope it’s considered about putting some back into that as a building, before we talk about any estates rebuilding,” Cllr Gomez-Aspron said.

St Helens’ police chief said officers will be deployed where they need to be at any given time.

St Helens Star: Superintendent Tami Garvey-JonesSuperintendent Tami Garvey-Jones

Supt Garvey-Jones said: “Should I get an uplift in officers for St Helens, I see St Helens as a whole, and I’ll put the police officers where they need to be on that day, that week, where the priorities are.

“So, everyone will get what they need based on common sense and risk and vulnerability at that time.

“And that’s for the whole of St Helens.”

Cllr Jeanie Bell, cabinet member for community safety, said she shared the concerns of her fellow Newton councillor.

She told the panel that she intends to write to Police and Crime Commissioner Jane Kennedy to ask for clarification around her stuttering estates strategy, which was first unveiled in 2014.

Cllr Bell said: “Our police do an incredible job and they work really hard in St Helens, but they need the facilities in which to do it.

“And it is our job as politicians to lobby, I feel on their behalf, to make sure that they have got good facilities to work from because that’s the very least that we owe them.”