RETIRED detective Chris Upham has written an open letter urging Labour politicians in the town to change their minds over proposals to cut funding on manned CCTV cameras covering Warrington town centre.
He has written an open letter to ALL Warrington Borough Councillors, Police and Crime Commissioner Dan Price, Sarah Hall MP and Charlotte Nichols MP and Esther McVey MP titled: Re: Non Monitoring of Warrington Town Centre Safety Cameras.
Chris, who joined other protestors outside the Full Council meeting at warrington Parr Hall on Monday night said: “I was really hoping to be able to write to you congratulating you on your decision to ensure the monitoring of our town centre safety cameras continues, but you haven’t listened to the expressions of concern of thousands of residents who fear for the safety of the town centre if, as you plan, the cameras are left in fixed positions but not monitored.
“I guess the real decision was made at the Cabinet meeting two weeks ago and the full Council just rubber-stamped it on Monday night. The majority Labour Group was whipped and so there was no way that the other 17 Councillors could out-vote you. I think the public should know that this budget was not supported by the Conservatives, Liberals or Independents, many of whom made passionate pleas about the cameras and all who voted against the budget.
“Chairman of the Finance Committee, Councillor Matthews, who I am grateful to for spending some time talking to me ahead of the meeting, was asked during the meeting if he would apologise to the residents for the mess the Council had made of our finances. He chose not to. But all credit to Labour Member Nathan Sudworth who did stand and apologise to the people of Warrington.
“I know the Council’s mantra on this is that they had to pass a budget or the Government would have made them bankrupt and seized all of the town’s assets. That’s certainly true but the budget did not need to include the cutting of £220,000, which would have kept the cameras monitored.
“I think it was an act of gross civic irresponsibility and it could have severe consequences for town centre users, day and night. It is not alarmist to say you will have blood on your hands and when you read the following, you will perhaps understand why I use such emotive language and pause and realise the dreadful mistake you have made.
“Many of you will have seen posts on social media from Cheshire Police Federation and as reported by Warrington Worldwide outlining an incident which has led to two extremely brave police officers being awarded for their bravery. The incident involved a suspicious character selling drugs in the town centre. The camera operators saw him and reported him to the police. Officers attended and the man, a very big man, became violent. One officer was punched to the ground the other stabbed 4 times in the chest with a screwdriver, thank goodness for body armour or we may have been looking at a dead police officer. With the assistance of colleagues, he was overcome and arrested. In his backpack, officers found knives, scissors, screwdrivers and a 5 inch blade attached to a pen together, with crack cocaine and heroin. This man was one nasty, violent individual who may never have been arrested had it not been for the vigilance of the camera operators. Thankfully, he is now in prison for the next three years. Imagine if he had attacked a member of the public who was not so well-trained or equipped as those two brave police officers, perhaps we would have had a dead or dying citizen left in the street. But he is not the only such individual who walks amongst us in our town centre and it is essential that the cameras are continually observed for all our sakes.
“Consider the case of 28 years old Mohammed Esmati, described in court as a Sexual Predator who was convicted of Sexual Assault on a woman in the town centre. The woman was left physically and emotionally distressed. He was not a local man and was living in a hostel in Widnes. He is due to be sentenced at Chester Crown Court on 19th March. This offence too was picked up by the CCTV monitors and reported to the police. Are you prepared to leave other innocent town centre users to become victims of such criminality? How would you feel if it was one of your loved ones?
“When pushed on the decision about monitoring of the cameras Councillor Matthews said both inside the meeting and to me outside, that the Council will work to find a solution in conjunction with the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner. When pushed as to what that might be he just kept repeating ‘we will find a solution’. Well forgive me but having seen the dreadful decision you have made I don’t have a lot of faith in that comment.
“I Hope you all reflect on what you have done, but I doubt whether there is a will amongst you to change the budget now and so our hopes must now rest with the Police and Crime Commissioner. I have seen his public statement saying he will visit other towns to see how their systems work, I’m not sure that’s necessary as we have a system which works exceptionally well, all it needs is funding. He went on to say he is looking for partners to work with to ensure the cameras are monitored. Now I think it’s reasonable to assume he will be looking for others to fund it or he’s hoping to recruit a band of volunteers. Perhaps he can explain. If the answer is volunteers, then I would remind Councillors of a comment from one Councillor at Monday’s meeting which clearly said that ’Volunteers should not be used to replace Council functions, but to support them’
“I will be watching very closely how you are progressing with your ‘we will find a solution’ project and I will be very interested to see what role the PCC plays and whether he is willing to spend some of his budget on our town centre safety. I don’t need to repeat here the concerns that have been expressed recently about the amount of money the PCC is spending on what some have described a vanity projects. The bottom line is he seems to have funds to spend on non-essentials but is he prepared to fund, or part fund, essential public safety cameras?
“The first duty of any Government, national or local, is to keep its’ citizens safe. WBC has clearly decided to swerve that duty and so now I think the focus should rightly be on the PCC to do the right thing.
“This issue will not go away. There is already a huge amount of concern being expressed and that concern will mount.
“The incidents I have outlined above are just two of many I could have highlighted and perhaps they are at the more serious end of criminality but even lesser offences bring great distress, anxiety and harm, physical and mental to the victims. You will be ensuring there are more victims suffering such harm and more offenders escaping the consequences of their actions. That’s not justice and I would hope that is not the sort of town centre you want for Warrington. Just reflect on the data. In the last year CCTV operators reported an average of 70 incidents a week to police, some serious, some less so. That led to an average of 12 people being arrested each week who otherwise probably would not have been. Be under no illusion the town centre can never be totally safe but monitored cameras keep it safer than it would otherwise be and have prevented many of our residents from becoming victims.
“It is not too late for you to change your minds and do the right thing and I urge you to do so.
“In your discussions with the PCC, I think the options are fairly simple. The Council can change its’ mind and fund it in full, the PCC can fund it in full or you can come to some shared funding whereby you each contribute an agreed amount.
“The public concern about this issue is greater than I have seen before and it will not go away. I will certainly keep the focus on what is happening in our town centre and will seek to hold people to account for their disregard for public safety.
“I am not a politician. I have lived in this town for 54 of my 78 years and it is my home. My wife, my children and my eight grandchildren live here as do my wider family members, one of whom was saved from being severely beaten by the intervention of police who had been alerted by the camera operators. and we all use the town centre at various times. I want it to be as safe as it can be for them and for everyone else who goes there. I was a police officer here and I know how dangerous our town centre can be at times and I know not everyone who visits it is of good intent. Please do not allow the dark side to have free rein. The only way to do that is to keep those cameras monitored.
“I appreciate that whatever happens the cameras will be monitored until September this year, but I think, to allay the fears of thousands of town centre users, the Leader of the Council should make a public statement advising residents that there is absolutely no way that the monitoring of the cameras will end.
“Thank you for taking the time to read this.”
Chris Upham
