Everyone deserves to be safe and feel safe. In the last two weeks, I launched my first Police and Crime Plan and Fire and Rescue Plan, putting that mantra front and centre.
As your Mayor, the safety and wellbeing of the public is my most important responsibility – ensuring our police and fire services protect the public and are well-managed, efficient services.
I’m the first to admit I wasn’t a politician when I came into this role. I stood to be Mayor because I saw the pressures on our public services and the impact this had on our communities. My brother is a police officer, my wife was a teacher, my mother waited over three years for surgery, and my father died alone during Covid restrictions. I was fed up, and I wanted to do something about it.
That’s why creating healthy, thriving communities is so important to me. It drives me every day. Early on, the urgency became clear when I joined North Yorkshire Police on a drugs raid in Scarborough.
After the police had arrested a young woman in her 20s, I looked around the house and found a room full of toys. A police officer told me that 15 years ago they were arresting this woman’s mum, I asked the police officer if we would be arresting her children in 15 years time. We have to break the cycle of failure in policing and our criminal justice system.
Prevention and early intervention
Both plans I’ve launched prioritise prevention and early intervention – work that gets in early to tackle root causes of crime and focuses on fire prevention. This work is the unsung hero of public services: supporting victims, diverting people from crime, conducting fire safety visits. Small investments here can save significant sums later.
I pledged to at least double police funding for early intervention and prevention, I’m pleased to say that I’ve done that. That will ensure more people receive help and support before it’s too late. But we need to do much more, through partnership working and increased collaboration too.
Both plans reflect what people and businesses across the region told me – they want to be safe and feel safe. That’s why across the 10 priorities for police and fire services, I will ensure that aim stays central.
A year ago, too many people told me they had lost faith in services being there when needed. Rebuilding that trust is hugely important. That’s why I’ll work with Deputy Mayor Jo Coles to tackle violence against women and girls, strengthen the rural crime task force, address the unacceptable levels of retail crime, improve crime reporting, and ensure victims – especially of serious crimes – get the support they need to cope and recover.
Safer neighbourhoods start with stronger neighbourhood policing. £1.9 million in extra Government funding means we can do our bit locally to help deliver 13,000 new neighbourhood police officers nationally. Job adverts are now live for new officers and PCSOs.
For our fire service, we’re ensuring it has the tools to improve public and firefighter safety, respond effectively to emergencies, and target prevention to keep people in York and North Yorkshire safe from fires, road traffic collisions, water hazards and other emergencies.
Finally, we must also take stronger action to improve road safety. We’ve adopted Vision Zero, aiming to eliminate road deaths in York and North Yorkshire. Our region is a beautiful place, many people who live here or visit love to get out and walk, wheel or cycle. Parents shouldn’t feel scared to let their children walk or cycle to school. Villages shouldn’t be torn in two by a road of speeding traffic. For too long others in our region have sat back and let traffic get faster and more dangerous. I will not. I am determined that our region becomes a safe haven for everyone who uses our streets.
Despite the chronic underfunding of police and fire services in recent years, they have continued to do their best, working hard to keep us all safe. I’m grateful for their service – but the public rightly expect more. Alongside Jo Coles, I’ll be monitoring progress closely.
We’ve set these priorities because that’s what the public told me they want to see. We’ll support our services to deliver change, reduce crime, and build safe, thriving communities across our region. I am determined to deliver the positive change people in York and North Yorkshire deserve in the years ahead.
From an article originally published by The Press.
Published on Monday 14 April 2025