Part of the process of growing older involves becoming slightly more cynical I m told, so I have to check myself here – but has the public sector structure become so desperate for cash and the community so desperate for them to provide the services for wh

Part of the process of growing older involves becoming slightly more cynical I'm told, so I have to check myself here - but has the public sector structure become so desperate for cash and the community so desperate for them to provide the services for which we pay, we now fund them additionally from private sector funds. We pay them twice. To be more specific, I'm talking about the Police patrols funded by the Royston First Business Improvement District.

As I understand, the Police have reduced the man-hours of the Royston Police Station drastically, thus leaving the huge palatial building that is the Police Station virtually empty during working hours.

I have issues with this on a number of levels. Firstly the costs of our public responsibilities have spiraled over the last 10 years. We've heard constant reminders about how important it is to maintain the standards to fight crime. Therefore this has justified rapid and drastic increases in our council taxation obligations.

The reality is a Police force which is very rarely seen on our streets but very common in large groups in local caf�s. Very rarely do they prevent real crime, but very keen are they to impose three points and �60 penalties.

A couple of suggestions which may help; The Royston Police Station is huge, the cost of building and maintaining a structure on that kind of a scale really ought to be accounted for by someone. Perhaps the empty building could be used for something useful, renting it out as affordable housing, maybe? Perhaps a few less Euros, as it's commonplace to see Range Rovers, BMW's or unmarked Audi A6's, usually with five police personnel in at a time.

Are we allowed to ask where our council tax funds go?

But much more importantly, why do local business have to cough up an additional �50,000 to put Bobbies back on the street, it really appears as though the Constabulary are running a mafia-style protection racket. Perhaps we will be able to hire a copper to tackle crime like this in the future. Here's the scenario; we are a victim of crime, the Police arrive, swipe our cards, and the chase commences?

They are already over funded, under-worked and incredibly over fed !

Nik Adams

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