22nd January 2010

Conservative City Councillor Chris Howell has won support at a recent council meeting to make cycle theft a city-wide priority for the Cambridge Community Safety Partnership, which includes police and local councils.

At the Strategy and Resources committee meeting on Monday 18 January Cllr Howell was concerned that the tackling of cycle theft was effectively being "kicked into the long grass as a special project" and proposed an amendment to make it a priority area for action.

Cllr Howell said "Cycle theft is a curse on Cambridge and it's high time something was done about it. We were told last year that cycle theft was being taken seriously, but thefts have still increased, with Cambridge recently dubbed the UK's 'bike crime capital'."

Conservatives are detirmined to tackle the scandalous shortage of secure cycle parking at the station and around the city, but we need also more effort from the police to catch those responsible for bike theft and bring them to justice.

City Councillors have the power to set some policing priorities through the community safety partnership, but are usually reluctant to do so, taking the safe route of accepting the police proposals wholesale.

Chris added "I was one of the first councillors to change neighbourhood policing priorities at an area committee. At first police were surprised but nowdays we can get a healthy debate which keeps the focus where we eed it. I am glad that I was able to do the same at the city level but why did the Lib Dems sit on their hands at the vote?  Do the Lib Dems not believe in local accountability for policing?"