Help, don't hinder

I take great exception to the intimation that I do not confer with my constituents. The electorate of Ewood Ward in Blackburn have been kind enough to give me a mandate on three occasions to carry on working for them.

In the past five years, the number of Neighbourhood Watch schemes in the ward has tripled and the burglary rate has halved.

The scheme where I live has had burglar alarms fitted to a quarter of the area's homes in the past two years, largely as a result of co-ordination with the local police and councillors.

I, too, was a police officer, so I know, as you should, Mr D'Arcy, the difficulties involved in that role. I also know that if there had been as much co-operation between the police and the public some 25 years ago when I was a bobby, life would have been much simpler for me. I would have thought with his background, Mr D'Arcy would have been instrumental in helping the police in any way possible, rather than endeavouring to make what is already an unenviable job into a nigh-impossible one.

I am not of the opinion that everything the police have tackled has always been carried out in the proper manner, but, rather than make my criticisms public, I prefer to go through the correct channels, so there is more chance of the problems being addressed.

In respect of his question on town centre policing, the number of officers employed in Blackburn with Darwen has risen by more than 10 per cent since 1991 and most are deployed as beat police in the town centre's 'hot-spots'.

There will never be enough resources to enable us to have as many beat bobbies as we need, but, notwithstanding Mr D'Arcy's scepticism on the statistics, we are definitely going in the right direction in combating crime in Blackburn with Darwen.

Finally, if he, or any citizen of this borough, would like to help in setting up a Neighbourhood Watch scheme, I will only be too pleased to advise the best way of going about it.

COUNCILLOR JOHN MILBURN, Laxey Road, Blackburn.