The End of Thames Valley Police Authority

This morning, I attended the last Thames Valley Police Authority  meeting where we finished our business before the new Police and Crime Commissioner takes over.   As I drove home, I could hear the results of the first count.  I have been a member of the authority for five years now as a representative for Oxfordshire County Council and I have seen many changes.  I have also been involved with the local policing boards at Cherwell, Vale of White Horse and, up until this week, West Oxfordshire.  Currently, it is not clear how the new commissioner will be involved with neighbourhood policing as one person can hardly be sitting on every single board across Thames Valley.

I expressed concern today that the new Police and Crime Panel will have no representation from Liberal Democrats and will therefore not have the same political balance as the current authority where we have a committee set up after every council election in the Thames Valley, which works out the proportional representation of all three main political parties.  The new panel is made up of the majority Conservative group with some Labour representation.  I did write about this concern to the Panel, LGA (Local Government Association) and the Policing Minister, but unfortunately the discretion lies with the remit of the Panel.  However, it does not inspire confidence in fair representation at this stage.

Today, we also had a tour of the new office block at the Kidlington HQ of Thames Valley Police (see extreme left of first photo above), and as I stood at the door for the last time, I felt a tinge of sadness that this is the end of an era keeping an eye on the work of the police in Thames Valley.  I wish them well in the future under the new arrangements.