I WRITE in response to Steve Kay ‘Police future’ (HAS, Apr 16).

There is now clear evidence that the repeated Government cuts to police funding, and the resulting large scale reduction in the number of officers available to Chief Constables, has coincided with a rise in crime, and in particular violent crime.

In Cleveland we have lost 500 officers in the past seven years and those officers and staff that remain are being stretched ever thinner.

It is to their great credit that, despite this, the force continues to make forward progress and has recently been highlighted by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate as an example of best practice when it comes to neighbourhood policing.

Steve Kay is one of the few people in East Cleveland and across the force area who feel we have enough officers, he goes further to suggest neighbourhood policing be scrapped and the area policed instead by a force encompassing the whole of North Yorkshire and the North East.

Not only would this changeover drain tens of millions of pounds from current police budgets, it would inevitably see operational deployment decisions made not locally but from Tyneside or York. It would undoubtedly reduce further the number of officers on the streets of Cleveland.

I am determined to protect neighbourhood policing because I know how highly it is valued by local people and businesses. Not only do beat bobbies provide a re-assuring presence on the streets, they are also often the first to hear of vital intelligence that can counter the most serious of crimes.

Last year I called on politicians of all parties and none and anyone else with influence to join me in a united campaign for fairer funding for our force.

Pressure is growing and it is important that the region send a single, unequivocal message to Government that the public want to see the cuts to police funding reversed.

Barry Coppinger, Police & Crime Commissioner for Cleveland