Two years after taking office as York and North Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime, Jo Coles has reflected on the progress made so far to improve community safety, strengthen local services and support residents across the region.
Since being appointed in July 2024 the Deputy Mayor has worked alongside David Skaith, the Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, North Yorkshire Police, North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, community organisations and local partners to deliver safe places for all.
Throughout the first half of her term, the Deputy Mayor has ensured local concerns help shape policing, fire and crime priorities which include increasing early intervention and prevention and partnership working to protect the public in every area of the county.
Jo Coles, Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime, said:
On my first day in this role in July 2024 I met victims of crime from across York and North Yorkshire.
Their experiences have stayed with me and helped to frame the priorities the Mayor and I are focused on every day to make our county safer and in our role, holding the Chief Constable and Chief Fire Officer to account and trying to prevent people becoming victims or perpetrators in the first place.
Our police and fire services colleagues do a vital job every day to keep us all safe and in return I’m determined to do everything I can to ensure support them wherever they work in the county.
Over the last week I’ve been on patrol with our expanded neighbourhood policing teams in Northallerton and Selby, met with the strategic road safety partnership who will be pivotal to delivering on our ambition to achieve the vision of zero deaths on our roads and wrote to the fire minister in the aftermath of the Government’s announcement of £97 million for national wildfire resilience.
I travelled to London this week to share best practice with other authorities on how we can deliver on the Government’s ambitions to reduce violence against women and girls.
Going forward I’m determined to ensure we work together with partners across policing, fire and the criminal justice system to continue to shift the focus towards prevention and early intervention as much as possible so that rather than dealing with the consequences of crime or a major fire, we are better able to prevent things happening in the first place.
Every time we can prevent a victim of crime, we also make our county a better, safer place for everyone.
Key Interventions
Over the past two years, key achievements and interventions include:
- Strengthened public safety across York and North Yorkshire through investment in neighbourhood policing, community safety, victim services and targeted prevention activity.
- Improved support for victims and vulnerable people, including women and girls, victims of domestic abuse, sexual violence and road traffic collisions.
- Enhanced community resilience by tackling priority issues such as rural crime, retail crime, knife crime and violence against women and girls.
- Secured financial sustainability of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service after years of underinvestment.
- Listened to residents and communities through consultations, advice surgeries and engagement activity to help shape local priorities and inform decision-making.
- Elevated road safety as a strategic priority by securing long-term investment, strengthening partnership working and driving forward the Vision Zero ambition that no death on our roads is acceptable.
- Built stronger partnerships locally, regionally and nationally to secure additional funding, influence policy and improve outcomes for communities across York and North Yorkshire.
- Strengthened our oversight though enhanced holding to account and performance monitoring of North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.
Policing and Community Safety
- Conducted a successful region-wide public consultation on the Mayor’s first Police and Crime Plan 2025-2029, which sets the strategic direction for policing over the next four years.
- Chaired the Local Criminal Justice Partnership, advocating and delivered the Northallerton Live Links system
- Secured £2m government funding for an additional 32 Police Constables and 20 PCSOs.
- Opened a new Women’s Centre in Scarborough and a new Sexual Assault Referral Centre outside York.
- Continued to fund and deliver mobile domestic abuse services across rural communities in Ryedale and Craven.
- Launched the Start Safe Stay Safe app to improve reporting of street harassment.
- Created a directory of support services for women and girls.
- Distributed 8,000 DNA property-marking kits to 1,500 farms, contributing to a 22% reduction in rural crime.
- Funded two Night Safe Officers in York.
- Removed 8,500+ bladed items from communities through 19 knife bins.
- Invested £460k in 47 community safety projects through the Community Fund.
- Supported partnership action to tackle retail crime through countywide symposiums.
- Made national representations to the Home Office on police reform, neighbourhood policing and police efficiency programmes.
Fire and Rescue
- Conducted a successful region-wide public consultation on the Mayor’s first Fire and Rescue Plan 2025-2029, which sets the strategic direction of fire and rescue for the next four years.
- Publicly consulted on and scrutinised the proposals to address future risks, for inclusion in the Service’s Community Risk Management Plan 2025-2029.
- Supported an increase in Fire Control staffing levels to strengthen resilience.
- Convened building safety partners to implement our Local Remediation Acceleration Plan for high and medium rise buildings.
- Sought assurances on the Langdale/Fylingdales Moor wildfire response and helped to secure £3.2m government funding towards restoration costs.
- Approved changes to the crewing of Harrogate’s second fire engine, increasing its availability and capability while delivering annual savings.
- Made national representations on fire funding, wildfire resilience and prevention, helping secure greater recognition of the risks facing rural services.
- Welcomed the improved HMICFRS 2025 inspection outcome, with 10 of 11 areas improving.
Road Safety
- Renewed our focus on road safety aligned with the Vision Zero ambition that no death on our roads is acceptable.
- Put the York and North Yorkshire Road Safety Partnership on a sustainable financial footing.
- Earmarked £2m capital investment through the Combined Authority’s Local Transport Grant for the region's first fixed and average speed cameras
- Hosted the first Northern Regional Road Safety Summit, bringing together more than 80 partner organisations.
- Supported 150 victims of serious road collisions and bereaved families through the Independent Road Victim Advocate Service.
- Introduced an annual Road Safety Month each July, promoting road safety awareness and action across the region.
The role of the Deputy Mayor includes providing oversight and scrutiny of North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service. This scrutiny includes service performance in relation to their inspections by His Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services, and one-off events such as the aftermath of the fire at Langdale in 2025.
The monthly Online Public Meetings are streamed live via YouTube, Facebook and available to view afterwards.
To find out more about the work of the Deputy Mayor, as well as the Police and Crime Plan and the Fire and Rescue Plan, visit https://yorknorthyorks-ca.gov.uk/what-we-do/york-north-yorkshire-policing-fire-and-crime-team/.
