What’s all this then... another 15 bobbies

OLDHAM is one of the winners in a police shake up that will see extra officers moved to the borough.

A redistribution of officers across Greater Manchester Police will see Oldham gain 15 bobbies to aid the fight against crime.

How officers are deployed across the force is reviewed periodically to ensure priorities are being met — and changes are now due to be made.

Oldham Chief Supt Tim Forber said: “The Oldham division is getting 15 additional constable posts and these will be deployed to continue to support the delivery of neighbourhood policing throughout the borough.

“It’s obviously beneficial to Oldham that we will have additional police resources to deploy to make Oldham a safer place.”

It’s not yet been decided the exact roles the extra officers will carry out.

Tameside and Rochdale will also gain 15 officers, Bury will gain 12, Wigan five and Manchester South 10.

Trafford’s numbers will remain the same but Stockport and Bolton will lose 15 bobbies, Salford will lose five and Manchester North will lose 10.

There has been criticism from areas losing out with disquiet as to how decreases in inner-city areas can be justified.

Chief Constable Peter Fahy said: “It is essential that we are make the best use of the resources that we have available and ensure that they are in the right place doing the right things.

“The changes we have made involve small numbers of police officers. There is no division that is affected by changes of more than 15 posts.

“We remains committed to neighbourhood policing and recent work to improve efficiency has allowed us to move officers from administrative roles into priority areas including local policing.

“Our programme of changes including the introduction of a new way of delivering local policing and improvements to our emergency response has also allowed us to move officers into neighbourhoods.

“We regularly review staffing levels and will continue to adjust them as required to ensure we have officers and staff in place to make a difference to communities.”

The plan is scheduled for April and will be discussed at a meeting of Greater Manchester Police Authority’s policy committee tomorrow.