Martyn Jones

Labour Party | Clwyd South

Labour MPs step up fight to save neighbourhood wardens – ‘an awful case of double standards’

Martyn Jones, MP for Clwyd South is today sending a firm message to the Wrexham County Borough Council to take note of an impassioned plea by Labour Councillors to extend the Neighbourhood Warden Scheme; a scheme that aims to tackle anti-social behaviour but has had its funding blocked at a recent council meeting by a coalition of Liberal Democrat and Independent Councillors. 

A coalition of Labour councillors have placed an advertisement in the local press imploring the community to take action and support their lobby to reverse the decision.  In the advert, Labour Councillors cite crime as a top local priority and emphasise that the role of neighbourhood wardens is key to tackling nuisance crime – something that each and every one of us is commonly subject to. 

It continues to detail an emergency meeting that they have demanded scheduled to be hosted on the 21st of February.  Most significantly, these councillors are so disillusioned with the recent vote that they have in fact paid what is a substantial advertising fee out of their own pockets to put this message across to the wider community. 

Liberal Democrat and Independent Councillors voted against extended the scheme to all communities by deleting it from the 2005/06 budget at a meeting of the Council’s Executive Board this January.  To add insult to injury, these councillors were quite happy for the wardens currently employed to remain in their communities rather than serve in communities where councillors had actually voted in favour of keeping them on.

Commenting on the decision, Mr. Jones said:

“The Liberal Democrats are on record in Parliament for voting against the Anti-Social Behaviour Act in June 2003 – as a result, the outcome of this vote does not surprise me.  I send my full support to the Labour councillor coalition and praise their personal efforts to raise awareness. The Liberal Democrats and other Independent councillors took the decision not to commit funding to the scheme next year; however, these councillors who voted for this action still asked for the remaining wardens to serve in their respective wards.  This decision constitutes an awful case of double standards and the wider community needs to be made aware of its implications. 

“Neighbourhood Wardens, across the country, have been shown to be a complete success in aiding the fight against anti-social behaviour and nuisance crime.  This scheme should be extended, and I encourage the whole community to get behind this coalition and lobby for a reversal of the decision.”