With central funding cuts to Welsh police constabularies totalling 5.1% over 2011-12 and 6.7% in 2012-13, difficult financial decisions will have to be made by all four police constabularies.
However, there was a very compelling argument from South Wales Police’s Assistant Chief Constable, Nick Croft who argued that SWP’s Cardiff division should receive additional funding of £1.1m due to Cardiff’s economic and demographic growth.
As Capital City and most populated city in Wales, Cardiff has a number of additional challenges. For starters there is 6 Nations rugby, 11 Olympic football matches and hopefully Premier League football for Cardiff City. Both the Metropolitan Police and the Lothian and Borders Police receive additional funding in recognition for demands made on London and Edinburgh, but Cardiff receives no such support. This is not about going cap in hand, but about getting fair finance that are police require for the demands of the modern job.
If fair funding is not achieved SWP have acknowledged that further cuts to areas like Bridgend is possible in order to maintain the growing pressures of capital city policing. This news comes at a time when Bridgend County Borough Council are threatening to turn off streetlights across the County Borough and the local authority have sold their CCTV function to Valleys to Coast Housing Association in a bid to save money. This could potentially be a major blow to our communities such as Wildmill and the town centre area.
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