Community meeting raises few issues

I attended a community engagement meeting in Shenstone organised by the police yesterday. When I arrived it had already started and I must admit I was surprised how many people were in the church hall.

It was funny actually… just as I got there, Tony Wilkins, the Labour County Councillor representing north Lichfield (I assume he has a role with the police liaison committee) was proclaiming to the 40 or so people there that the reason Lichfield District isn’t getting getting the new on-street parking enforcement from the County Council until 2009 is because the District Council was late in applying.

It was his misfortune that I walked in just at that time and I quite enjoyed correcting his proclamation explaining that the Labour County Council had made a conscious decision not to allow Lichfield to have it until later on. I do find it funny that he didn’t even try and defend his statement… he just stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting.

Anyway, the meeting seemed pretty content with the state of policing and Jon Radcliffe, Shenstone’s beat officer, came in for a heap of praise. Quite right too, he is very committed and takes community policing back to the style of Heartbeat, the tv programme set in the 50s and 60s.

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