Reporting local life since 1854 40pThursday, August 30, 2012

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CITY OFFERED GUNNERS ACE SEEBAC KPAG E

INSIDETO DAY

Stores are setto quit townMP Paul Farrelly is to write tothe owner of two stores whichare set to pull out ofN ewc a s t l e.

Arcadia-owned Burton andEvans will move out of theIronmarket next month.

Now the MP is to contactSir Philip Green, the owner ofthe Arcadia Group, in a bid tokeep the stores open.

It is the latest blow forNewcastle which has seen anumber of stores pull out ofthe town in the last few years.See page 4

Council writesoff tax debtsCOUNCIL chiefs are set towrite off millions in unpaidtax bills – despite tenderingfor a firm to collect debts.

Stoke-on-Trent City Councilis owed £19 million in unpaidcouncil tax bills since the1 9 9 0 s.

Thirteen firms are biddingfor the contract to recover £5million of the debt.

But the authority is nowpoised to write off millions ofpounds of ‘u n c o l l e c t abl e ’d e b t s.See page 11

Number of police officers on duty falls to levels not seen since 1970s

Graphic: Dave Clowes

BY ALEX CAMPBELLalex.campbell@thesentinel.co.uk

FEWER police officers are now on thebeat in Staffordshire than at any timesince the 1970s.

New figures show the number ofofficers employed by StaffordshirePolice has plunged to its lowest levelsince 1978 through continued forcedretirements and a recruitmentfree ze.

Records obtained under the Free-dom of Information Act show theforce has 1,915 officers, down from a

peak of 2,347 in 2006, and numbers arenow at their lowest since the late1970s when 1,941 policed the county.

And it is thought the force hadmore than 2,300 officers when it wascreated from the merger of the City ofStoke-on-Trent Police and Stafford-shire County Police in 1968.

Senior officers say falling numbersare mitigated by increases in policesupport staff, but critics say this iscountered by rising bureaucracy, pop-ulation growth and the increasingcomplexity of modern policing.

Staffordshire Police Federation

said the Government’s funding cuts,which mean the force must save £34million by 2015 when policing levelswill fall to 1,750, will mean residentshave to get used to a reduced policere s p o n s e.

Andy Adams, chairman of thePolice Federation in the county, said:“It will be difficult to maintain reduc-tions in crime. People are not naiveenough to think that with so fewernumbers we can just carry on.

“We can't be everywhere. T hingswill have to be assessed and attendedin order of importance.

“Police will be doing their best butthey can't go on doing everything.”

Former inspector Nigel Gunn, whoretired last year after 30 years’ s e r v i c e,said: “Police do a lot of things thatlocal authorities and the NHS shouldbe doing, like dealing with nuisanceneighbours, but they are not around inthe evening and weekends.The policewo n’t be able to cope.”

Crime fears: See Page 6

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