THE Liberal Democrat candidate for the upcoming Cumbrian police, fire and crime commissioner election (PFCC) has called for more police visibility in our town centres ahead of the upcoming poll.

Cumbrians are set to go to the polls on Thursday, May 2 in order to vote for the county’s next PFCC with incumbent, Peter McCall stepping down.

The Liberal Democrat candidate for the PFCC election is Adrian Waite, who is also the party’s prospective parliamentary candidate for Barrow.

Mr Waite is a town councillor in Kirkby Stephen and an experienced accountant.

Mr Waite said his major plans would be to increase the level of police visibility and a crackdown on rural crime.

“People want to see more community policing,” said Mr Waite.

“They want to see police officers preventing crime, detecting crime, deterring crime and being generally accessible to people when they need to consult a police officer about something that's happened.

“Since 2015, we've had a reduction of one third in the number of police community support officers under the current administration at the police authority, so there's obviously fewer police officers and fewer police community support officers around than they used to be.

“There's also issues around the amount of time that police officers have to spend doing paperwork as opposed to doing things that are that are visible.

“The government has increased the number of police officers, but that’s at the same time as there's been quite savage cuts to police budgets, so the numbers they've put back in the last couple of years have been quite small in comparison to the numbers that they've taken out over the over the years before that.

“We're nothing like the level of police force we used to be in comparison.”

Home Office figures show there were 1,395 Cumbria Constabulary officers in September last year.

It was a slight increase of four officers from six months earlier in March, and up from September 2022, when 1,288 were recorded as part of the government’s drive to recruit 20,000 new officers.

A key part of Mr Waite’s election campaign is the problem of rural crime in Cumbria.

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A dedicated rural crime team was officially launched last year by Cumbria Police to better protect the county's farming communities.

The priorities of the division include burglary of rural businesses and farms, theft of farm machinery, environmental offences such as waste, and livestock offences.

“Rural crime really is a serious problem in Cumbria,” said Mr Waite.

“It's very well organised and it operates internationally.

“It's not just opportunistic people taking somebody's hedge trimmer - it's far more serious.

“We have got a rural crime unit now in Cumbria. It's very small and I think that needs to be strengthened.”

Mr Waite also highlighted the need for better protection for women and girls.

“We need to think also particularly about safety for women and girls who are particularly vulnerable,” said Mr Waite.

“Women who work in the hospitality industry and town centre who are having to walk home late at night and must feel safe on the streets.

“That's all allied to an increase in community neighbourhood policing but its an important part of that to sort of address those particular concerns that people have.

“This is an important election and what the police service does and what the fire service does really matters.

“It matters very much if people feel safe on the streets, if they've got community policing or not, it matters where women and girls feel safe matters.

“All these are all very important issues and I think what I'm offering is a different vision to the to the rather sort of stale one of decline that we've seen under the Conservative administration in the last few years and I would encourage everybody to turn out to vote.”