Councillor Jill Hood issues open letter to the Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner

Stone Urban County Councillor, Jill Hood, has issued the following open letter to the Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis.

[box type=”shadow” align=”alignleft” class=”” width=””]An open letter to Police Commissioner Matthew Ellis from County Councillor Mrs Jill Hood. Stone urban.

Copied to Sir William Cash MP for Stone

Dear Mr Ellis,

As Police Commissioner I have no doubt you know that during the weekend Stone town was subject to two arson attacks. One fire was set in a residential home on Granville Terrace and two fires set in The Old Fire Station on Crown Wharf owned by Joules. Fortunately, the fires were spotted in their early stages with the fire service acting quickly and no one was hurt. For months now we have had to put up with anti-social behaviour, starting with obscene pictorial graffiti with racist slurs and words mocking the police.  Lately we have had windows smashed in business premises in various parts of our town and burglaries committed. Staff have been threatened in our supermarkets and shops and property vandalised. Drug users and dealers have made the most of lock down, brazenly wandering around the town. Residents are continually using social media to post CCTV images to warn us that people are trying to get into their homes and trying car doors and that they have had their property broken into, or to beware that there are prowlers in gardens. Video images showing people in the High Street in the middle of the night have been shared. Residents tell me they have caught intruders in their gardens and when asked why they haven’t called the police they tell me there’s no point as they won’t come and will do nothing.

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I know that the majority of criminals who have been active in Stone are now in custody and hopefully will get sentences to fit their crimes. Our police work tirelessly, reduced in numbers by Covid 19 and having to socially isolate but their dedication has got results. Business owners who live on their premises tell me they are lying awake at night, frightened to go to sleep as each noise makes them think they are the next target. A number of residents have now resorted to patrolling the streets at night to offer protection.

Police Chief Inspector Giles Parsons gives a regular update on policing in Stone to our group of Stone Independent borough councillors, who then share the information with the Stone town Independent councillors on how he is dealing with the very worrying crime wave in our town. He is too professional to say what we can see, that it is because as services are squeezed and costs increase, resources are reduced which means criminal activities escalate as there is little or no deterrent.

Mr Ellis, figures in the 2018/19 financial year showed that your staffing costs with 22 full-time jobs and two part-time backroom staff accounted for £1,415,000 a figure which I personally feel is astonishing and wonder how it equates to a police officers wage. I have often spoken to our Stafford borough officer regarding our CCTV but it is now obvious that Stone needs more coverage than we have. I believe that it is up to you to find funding out of your budget for more CCTV and the recruitment of more police officers. Residents want to know that every available penny is spent on frontline services. I worry that due to the anger of residents aimed at those few who are terrorising our town, there will come a situation when someone takes the law into their own hands with tragic consequences. It is your duty as Police Commissioner to give every available resource now to our Stone police who are doing their very best to help us. What are you going to do about this ongoing situation Mr Ellis?

County councillor Mrs Jill Hood. Stone Urban [/box]