Community Safety Call - Leigh-on-Sea

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Leigh On Sea News: Community Safety Call – A CONSERVATIVE leader is calling on the council to employ more community safety officers

Community Safety Call - A CONSERVATIVE leader is calling on the council to employ more community safety officers

A CONSERVATIVE leader is calling on the council to employ more community safety officers, plant more trees, and provide more support for pensioners in a raft of budget amendments he presented to the Labour-run Southend City Council.

The Tories have called for five more officers to join the community safety team to tackle antisocial behaviour across Southend’s five Public Space Protection Orders, whilst proposing an additional three officers to be in force during the school summer holiday.

They also suggest a “pensioner group co-ordinator” to help groups, clubs and societies reach the elderly.

James Courtenay, Conservative Group leader, said: “A lot of the budget focus is on people who have got heightened needs or are in a deprived area, which I understand. However, I’m also conscious with higher tax bills nationally and locally it’s about time we gave something back to residents as a whole.”

Coun Daniel Cowan, Labour Council Leader, responded: “We are always happy to look at ways to improve community safety and support our residents.

“We believe support for pensioners is better delivered by expert providers, so would want to review the suggestion to hire staff directly, but as we have already shown with our ringfenced support for pensioners, we will help where we can.”

Whilst their additional amendment to “quadruple” tree planting across the city to 400 a year would cost the council £530,000, Coun Courtenay says £225,000 of this could be recouped by reducing the number of cars included on the Southend Pass – a monthly- fee for parking across the city.

Coun Courtenay explained: “We want to limit it to two people per pass.

“If you’ve got a family of four with two grown-up kids nothing stops you having two passes and that’s still only £25 a month for four cars. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. You can’t charge £12.50 for an unlimited number of vehicles.”

Mr Cowan added: “We will review the amendments and support what is financially achievable.”

Picture: Coun Courtenay is Leader of the Conservative Group at the Council

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