Office of Northamptonshire
Police, Fire and Crime
Commissioner
PCSO Rachael Barber, who looks after the St David’s area of Northampton, has set up a community football team with support from local businesses and the Police and Crime Commissioner.
Local businesses provided some funding to get the scheme off the ground and the Police and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold matched their contribution. PCSO Barber will
now be running sessions that will help young people develop skills of discipline, fair play and teamwork.
Having spent time with Rachael while she was on patrol, Stephen Mold was impressed by her involvement with local people and inspired to think about how to support the work of otherpolice officers and staff in the community. Workis now underway to develop a grant scheme with the aim of opening it for bids in the autumn.
Scheme continues to go from strength to strength
(l-r): Jill Jamieson Crick Parish Council; Brian Hughes, Crick Parish Council; Northamptonshire Police and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold; PCSO Duncan Cumming; PCSO Les Conopo; Steven Haddock
Crick Parish Council and Prologis RFI DIRFT are sponsoring two dedicated PCSOs to help keep their community safe under a newly extended scheme developed by the Northamptonshire Police and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold.
Crick PC and Prologis DIRFT have part-funded local PCSOs for some time but under this new scheme, they will now pay 100% of the costs of two PCSOs and receive in return a dedicated resource for their area.
PCSO Les Conopo and PCSO Duncan Cumming will now work full-time on the Crick and DIRFT beat, only being deployed to other duties in very exceptional circumstances such as a major incident.
Created to empower communities and encourage joint working between local partners and the police, the ‘Sponsor a PCSO programme’ runs in 12-month cycles and will see up to 12 new sponsored PCSOs operating across the county in areas where local organisations have opted to cover the full cost of the role.
Brian Hughes of Crick Parish Council said: “Crick values greatly the work that has been done by our sponsored PCSOs for many years and is very grateful to Prologis for the superb support which they provide to the Parish in making a major contribution to the cost of the sponsorship. The visible presence and availability of the PCSOs in the village significantly enhances its safety and security.”
Steven Haddock, Director of Regional Property Management at Prologis UK added: “We already provide private security for our customers at DIRFT RFI and sponsoring two dedicated PCSOs, and the police powers they bring, enables us to bridge the link between our logistics park and the local community and ensure vital community policing work in the area can continue.
“As the long-term owner of the logistics parks we develop, building a strong relationship with the local community is important for us and it’s great to be working in partnership with Crick ParishCouncil to deliver real benefit for people local to our development.”
Nick Adderley, the new Chief Constable of Northamptonshire Police, will take up his post on Monday 6 August. Nick joins the Force from Staffordshire Police and takes over from Chief Constable Simon Edens, who is retiring after 37 years in policing.
Police and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold said: “I thank Simon Edens for the contribution he has made to policing in Northamptonshire and I welcome Nick to the county.”
PCC accompanies specially trained team
Stephen Mold spent the morning at Wellingborough Fire Station recently where he watched Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service’s Animal Rescue Unit – a specially-trainedteam of fire fighters who usehighly specialised equipment and techniques in large animal rescue – go through their paces.
The Unit is based in Wellingborough Fire Station and was established in 2008. In a rural county like Northamptonshire, it is called on to help large animals such as horses quite frequently – the Animal Rescue Unit was deployed to 46 animal incidents in 2017/18.
Animals can be unpredictable when distressed and to reducethe risk of harm to firefightersand members of the public, and to treat animals as humanely as possible, the Unit was set up to provide a highly-skilled and well-equipped specialist team.
Horses are by far the most frequent customers of the ARU, accounting for 80 per cent of calls and having had to be rescued from ditches, rivers and, on one occasion, a roof! Animal rescue skills are also often in demand at road traffic collisions and house fires.
The Animal Rescue Unit has a unique vehicle called a Unimog, a four-wheel drive vehicle equipped with a Hiab crane to which a special animal rescue harness and lifting stops is attached. This makes rescuing large animals as humane and safe as possible.
Members of the Unit work and train with vets and work to the standards of the Royal Veterinary College, while they are also specialists in water rescue and were in action tosupport people during floodingin Far Cotton, Northampton, at the beginning of the summer.
A countywide road safety strategy is being created to reduce the risk to motorists, riders and pedestrians on Northamptonshire’s roads.
The number of serious collisions in the county has reduced but more people died on the county’s roads in 2017 than in the previous year – 40 compared with 26.
People also highlighted road safety as a priority during consultation on the Police and Crime Plan.
Now Northamptonshire Police, Northamptonshire Fire and Rescue Service, Northamptonshire CountyCouncil and the Officeof the Police and Crime Commissioner have come together as a Strategic Roads Alliance.
Working together, the partners will devise a road safety strategy based on data about the causes and locations of collisions, so that they can look at any action that could be taken to reduce the risk for other road users.
It is hoped that the strategy will be launched in the autumn.
Southfield win after Dragon’s Den style pitch
The County Schools Challenge is a partnership project run across secondary schools in Northamptonshire that each year, helps thousands of young people to learn about important social issues.
Teams of pupils from the 23 schools that took part were challenged to take a business approach to tackle a social problem, this year’s was road safety. The teams then showcased their ideas to a panel of judges, ‘Dragons Den’ style.
The winning idea from Southfield School was for a community graffiti road artproject for young people to help spread road safety messages.
Runner-up in the competition was Isebrook SEN College in Kettering, ahead of Corby Business Academy in third.
Now Stephen Mold, Northamptonshire Police and Crime Commissioner and part of the judging panel, has promised to fund the development of all of the top three ideas.
“I just love the passion and commitment of the children that took part and it was extremelydifficult to choose a winner,” Stephen Mold said.
Claire Wintersgill, who is headof PSHE at Southfield School, said: “It is absolutely fantastic that the team won, they worked really hard for it.
“I think this prize will mean everything to the team. They are so ambitious and passionate about their product idea. They deserve to win.”