invisible and ineffective wardens

My Labour colleague Cllr Sam Townend has written a letter to the South London Press, which has been printed today.

Here it is:

I WRITE in support of the abolition of the largely useless wardens scheme in Lambeth - brought in by the Lib Dem/Tories - and the Labour administration's proposed replacement with additional police community support officers.

As a new Labour councillor in a ward that was previously held by the Lib Dems (Kennington and Vauxhall), my ward has had the supposed benefit of six wardens for 18 months or so. Despite canvassing thousands of doors and going to large numbers of community meetings over the same period, neither my two ward councillor colleagues nor I have ever come across any of the six supposedly employed in my patch, nor have any residents raised any matter about them with me, other than to say that they never see them. In my area, wardens have been invisible and ineffective.

More police support officers out on the beat will in contrast make a real difference in terms of confidence of local people in their safety on the streets, and will be effective because they report to and are managed by professionals who know what they are doing. They will be accountable because their work is overseen by the safer neighbourhoods group, made up only of local residents, not by some faceless bureaucrat in the town hall (which is the way the Lib Dems always seem to want to run things). They will also importantly have powers - unlike the wardens - which are essential for their effectiveness.

I wish the Lib Dem spokesman for crime would just shut up and compare and contrast the obvious effectiveness of the proposed police-managed officers than the limp wardens scheme which it replaces.
Cllr Sam Townend, Labour Prince's ward, Lambeth council