CLAIMS that Middlewich residents are paying more for policing and getting less for their money are not true, Cheshire’s police and crime commissioner has said.

PCC John Dwyer said not only did Middlewich have its own dedicated officers but, in November, another local policing unit had been opened in Congleton, which covers Middlewich, so there were extra resources there.

Speaking at Monday night’s meeting of Middlewich Town Council, Mr Dwyer said: “I want to make it absolutely clear you’re not only getting your fair share of policing but, since I’ve been here and with the new chief constable, you’ve now got your own local policing unit to identify with as well, which is a big plus.”

He said by the end of March next year, Cheshire Police aimed to have 2,345 officers across the county or more.

And he said the 101 non-emergency call service, which hadn’t been fit for purpose with people waiting up to an hour for a call be answered, had now been improved.

“We've already increased staff to bring the average call handling of 101 down to about six minutes, but it's got to get better than that because I'm still not satisfied,” said the police commissioner.

But town councillors challenged Mr Dwyer about actual numbers in Middlewich.

Cllr Carol Bulman (Lab) said: “People in Middlewich are going to be paying more precept, you’ve got more money, but we’re going to have fewer police.”

Northwich Guardian:

Cllr Carol Bulman

Mr Dwyer replied: “You have still got the presence you had before. You’re paying more because we’re doing other things with it and there will be an increase in the police establishment across the force as a whole and that’s what we’re determined to do.

“You’re losing nothing at all, what you’re doing is gaining 101 handling for a start which actually impacts on people in Middlewich just as it does anywhere else in the county. There will be more police officers in the county across the board, so the response policing will still be significant and will get better because we’ll have more officers to do that response.”

Chief Inspector Claire Jesson, who is in charge of the recently formed Congleton Local Policing Unit, said “We have now, covering our Congleton LPU as a whole, five extra sergeants and five teams of eight PCs, so an extra 40 PCs answering our response calls that you didn’t have before November 4.”

The chief inspector said the town still had its own dedicated PCSO, a dedicated PC who knew the town had recently been recruited, and the sergeant based in Sandbach.

She added because the custody suite is in the town and there is a constant flow of officers dropping off prisoners, any of those could be sent to a job in Middlewich while there because the force’s mapping system sends the nearest patrol to an incident.