Crime group in crisis
A former Newark police chief has been enlisted to revive a failing community partnership.
Inspector Jerry Butler has been asked to take charge of the Newark and Sherwood and Bassetlaw Community Safety Partnership, after a government report said it was failing to help the police.
Inspector Butler takes over after the sudden departure of Mr Neil Atkinson, the former officer in charge of the quango, which looks at issues such as anti-social behaviour and crime rates. It recently paid overtime for police officers to issue parking tickets in Newark.
Newark and Sherwood District Council is refusing to say why Mr Atkinson left, and the Advertiser has been unable to contact him.
Inspector Butler has been drafted in on a six-month secondment, but is likely to have to face a cut in financing and the loss of support staff.
The district council’s manager for risk and resilience, Mr Ian Harrison, this week said the partnership was under review.
“We are working closely with the Government Office for the East Midlands, which is providing some interim support services to the partnership until the new structure is confirmed, and its long-term viability assessed,” he said.
“We expect to have completed this assessment over the next few weeks, and will be able to provide more detail on the proposed new structure and how it will be financed at this point.”
The partnership, set up in 1998, has members from the police, Newark and Sherwood district and Nottinghamshire county councils, plus the county’s primary care trust and the fire service.
The partnership is one of several overseen by a county group and can spend money, mainly provided by the county council, to help prevent and detect crime.
Past projects have also included security cameras and extra policing.
The Advertiser revealed in recent weeks how the partnership’s work was criticised in a review by the Home Office’s Police and Crime Standards Directorate, and the Government Office East Midlands.
Members were interviewed and the study concluded there was no shared definition of community safety, and members lacked a clear remit.
The report said the board was not providing a strategic lead and not taking decisions.
