Funding for the Met Police mostly comes from the Mayor of London (who gets his income from the annual GLA "precept" which is added to Council tax bills), and from central Government. The Mayor's Office for Police & Crime (MOPAC) sets the operational priorities for the Police which are currently:
Reducing and preventing violence
Increasing trust and confidence (in the Police)
Better supporting victims of crime
Protecting people against exploitation.
See https://www.london.gov.uk/programmes-and-strategies/mayors-office-polic… for more information.
One part of MOPAC's role is to oversee the Safer Neighbourhood Team ward panels, which exist in every ward across Croydon and indeed across London. The panels typically consist of 12-20 local residents who meet their local ward sergeant every quarter. The sergeant provides information about local crime statistics and trends, and members in turn advise the police on what they think the policing priorities should be for the next quarter. There's also a Safer Neighbourhood Board which consists of the chairs of the ward panels and which meets occasionally to discuss borough-wide issues.
The AGM for the Purley & Woodcote ward panel will be held at 7:00pm on Thursday 19 January at Christ Church Purley (opposite Rotary Field). It's a golden opportunity for residents to find out at first hand what's going on in the ward and to influence future police priorities, for example between catching burglars, preventing ASB or catching speeding drivers, so I hope that lots of residents will wish to attend. Every ward in the borough has a ward panel, so if you're not a Purley & Woodcote ward resident, please ask your local councillors about your own.
This meeting is also an AGM, so there will be an election for the positions of Chair & Secretary of the panel, and nominations for this role are open until 17 January. If you are interested, please just send a simple email to [email protected]
to say that you'd like to stand for one of the positions, and you'll be given full instructions on what happens next.
I hope to see lots of you at the meeting, and please contact me if you have any questions.
Cllr Simon Brew
