Lucy Rigby

By Lucy Rigby lucyrigby

I have always had a tremendous amount of respect for our local police officers, but I hadn’t quite realised just how commendable our Lincolnshire force is until last week, when I was lucky enough to spend part of the day with officers and Shadow Policing Minister Jack Dromey MP.

Lincolnshire Police is a smaller force than most – 1,100 officers – and they operate with less money than almost anywhere else. In fact, we have the lowest cost force per head of the population; other forces spend on average £20 million more every year. Just as well, because Lincolnshire receives the lowest central Government funding per head of population of any force in the country. The workload is challenging to say the least: a higher than average number of crimes (roughly 500 to 600 incidents per day) and the third largest geographical area in the country.

Given each of the above, the fact that Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) rates our Lincolnshire force as outstanding or good on all measures (including an outstanding for ‘affordable policing’) is testament to officers themselves and the efficiency of the organisation. It’s without doubt of further tribute to officers and PCSOs that there has been an overall reduction in crime in each of the last three years, including last year’s fall of 2.7%, and a fall of 3.9% in the year to date.

This said, there may be dark clouds on the horizon. Despite the fact that our local force are an already very lean and efficient operation, the current Government wants to impose further funding cuts, which will mean around £7 million less in 2015/16 and £11 million less in 2017/18. This would inevitably involve job cuts, with fewer officers and PCSOs on our streets.

Lincs Police is already down by 100 officers (from 1,220) on four years ago and it’s estimated that our force would need to lose around another 230 officers. It seems clear to me that, given current operating conditions and funding, further cuts would lead to questions about viability and make the public, as well as potentially officers themselves, less safe.

My view is very simple: when our local force has had to economise so much already, further cuts cannot be right, sensible or justifiable. The first priority of any government is to keep its population safe and Britain has already seen the most severe police cuts in Europe under this Government, and the most severe in this country since the Second World War.

The Tories have completely abandoned the previous Labour Government’s commitment to ‘neighbourhood policing’, which was very popular with the public. Police rooted in communities, building relationships, networks and trust; it’s this emphasis on crime prevention that people want to see from their local force. Instead, ill-conceived cuts mean resources are beginning to have to be deployed reactively rather than preventatively.

That’s why I’m very glad that my party have committed to scrapping the Tories’ planned cuts for 2015/16 and 2017/18. This will of course mean, in straightened financial times, having to find money elsewhere. Savings will be made through, for example, the scrapping of Police and Crime Commissioners – which wasted £75 million of taxpayers’ cash, only for seven in eight voters to stay at home.

Labour have also committed to restore the emphasis on community policing, an approach which I am convinced is the right one for the public and our local force alike.

Lucy Rigby is Lincoln Labour's candidate to be the city's next MP. She is a solicitor and lives in central Lincoln.

By Lucy Rigby lucyrigby

The National Health Service was the greatest political achievement of the last century. It is rightly revered the world over. But, as is well-documented, it’s now not so much just creaking at the seams as struggling to survive.

Lincoln Labour have been going out talking to residents every week for months and months now and one recurrent issue is the time it takes to get a GP appointment. The nurses and doctors that serve our area do an undeniably excellent job but under the current government one in four people now wait a week or more for a GP appointment.

One in two nurses say that wards are understaffed. Waiting lists are the highest they’ve been in years. Local healthcare staff know better than anyone the pressures our NHS is under and we need to do more to support them.

If one of my children was ill or if one of my parents had been injured, I’d want to know that they will be seen and treated as soon as possible. The same goes for everyone in Lincoln.

At the Labour Conference here in Manchester yesterday, Ed Miliband announced that the next Labour government will create a £2.5 billion a year NHS ‘Time to Care Fund’ to save and transform the health service.

Labour will support 20,000 more nurses, 8,000 more GPs, 5,000 more careworkers and 3,000 more midwives. By appointing these additional staff, our doctors and nurses will have the time they need to care properly for patients, as well as transforming services in communities and at home.

It’s incredibly important that people know that the next Labour government is committed to eliminating the deficit and that we will balance the books by the end of the next Parliament. That’s why the Time to Care Fund will not be paid for through more borrowing or by raising taxes on ordinary working people. Instead, the money will be raised from a tax on houses worth over £2 million, a coordinated crackdown on tax avoidance, and by ensuring tobacco companies contribute towards the costs they impose on the NHS.

The Conservative government haven’t just destabilised our health service with an expensive and entirely wasteful reorganisation; they’re holding it back from meeting the challenges of the 21st century: the challenges that come from an ageing population, more people living with chronic conditions, the increasing need for mental health provision, and a higher premium on preventing illness.

At present, the NHS is going backwards. Patient care has taken a backseat as our NHS becomes downgraded, fragmented and privatised. We can only take the NHS forwards into the 21st century if we are willing to fund it adequately and to restore its founding principles of care and community service.

Lucy Rigby is Lincoln Labour's candidate to be the city's next MP. She is a solicitor and lives in central Lincoln.