Commissioner slams misleading claims by Sheffield Lib Dem Group

South Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Shaun Wright has slammed the deliberate and inaccurate information being circulated by the Lib Dem Group on Sheffield Council regarding his budget, the appointment of his deputy and security measures taken to protect his family.

“The main focus of my first budget is to keep police officers permanently in their jobs” said the Commissioner, “making the streets of South Yorkshire safer.”

Mr Wright believes the budget figures have been deliberately misquoted by certain members of the Lib Dem Group in Sheffield.

“At no point did I say I was ‘forced to put council tax precept up’”, he explained. “I increased it purely to maintain police numbers on the streets of South Yorkshire something the public have consistently told me they want.”

“The budget figures are certainly not ‘faulty’. The council tax precept rise is by no means unique to South Yorkshire, and the £4.5 million underspend in the Police Authority budget from last year is being allocated to keep community initiatives going, to deliver more support for victims of crime and to allow the Probation Service to do more to tackle re-offending.

“The £3.2million figure quoted by the Lib Dem group is actually a cut in Government grant. The overall reduction to the Force budget is £6.1million this year. I would like to remind the public that the Police and Crime Panel, which includes Liberal Democrat and Conservative members, approved the budget unanimously, welcoming particularly the commitments I made to Neighbourhood Policing and police visibility, the four Community Safety partnerships for South Yorkshire and the emphasis I place on Child Protection”

The Commissioner also hit out at the criticism levelled at the recruitment process for the post of Deputy Police Commissioner. He said:

“The process was open and transparent, and fully endorsed by the Police and Crime Panel. To say that Deputy Police Commissioner Cheetham, a respected Councillor, is a ‘highly-paid political crony’, is an insult to both the Police Commissioner’s office and to the rigorous process that saw her appointment.

 “As for the expenditure on my home security. I have always made it clear that unlike mainstream politicians and other high-profile public figures, I do not enjoy the anonymity of my home address being outside the public domain. The fact that some have chosen to publish or dwell on details – which were in fact confidential - relating to recommended measures I have put in place to protect my family, is frankly disgraceful.”

The Commissioner concluded, “I feel this is a prime example of political non-newsworthiness, and plainly it would seem that certain people who should know better appear to have learned nothing from the lessons of the Leveson inquiry. It is further most regrettable that the Lib Dem Group in Sheffield have attempted to score political points through the use of inaccurate and misleading information.”