The Party of law & order?

9.35.46am UTC (GMT +0000) Mon 28th Feb 2005

Liberal Democrats want to recruit 10,000 more police officers nationwide

Hampshire Police Authority recently turned down an offer of funding for 25 Police Support Officers for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

Astonishingly, The Conservative Chairman of the Authority recommended rejecting the extra Government money.

'A rare opportunity to increase policing on Hampshire's streets could have been missed,' says Hampshire Lib Dem leader, Adrian Collett.

The Chief Constable, Paul Kernaghan, later expressed his concern, saying: 'I am disappointed that there will not be 25 additional members of staff working for Hampshire Constabulary'.

Councillor Collett urged the Authority to change their minds. Thankfully, at a meeting held just before Christmas the Authority did just that.

'We desperately need more Police Officers on Hampshire's streets, so to turn down 25 free Police Support Officers made no sense at all.'

If the Authority had stuck to that line, the Conservatives would have been letting the people of Hampshire down very badly.