John Baron

Conservative Party | Billericay and District

Points of View

Missing Essex Police

Since 1997, the Essex Police levy on council tax bills has rocketed by 94% and raised an extra £36 million, but only a fraction of this has been spent on extra police.  This money should have paid for around an extra 720 Police Officers on our streets but instead police numbers have only increased by 130 since 1997.  This is wrong. 

Whilst accepting that not all new money could be spent on police officers, the gap is too large and needs explaining.

In my view, the Government is to blame because it has imposed on the police a massive increase in red-tape and burdens which has forced up their costs. For example, every time a police officer stops someone they now have to fill in a form a foot long with 40 questions to answer, blanks to fill in and boxes to tick.  This is a nonsense.

As a result, Essex is missing nearly 600 Police Officers for which local taxpayers have been charged.  In other words, local taxpayers are being short changed.
 
The Independent Audit Commission has already confirmed that Labour’s fiddled funding has forced local councils to whack up council tax bills because the government refused to help meet the cost of extra responsibilities it has imposed on councils. Now we can see that our police forces have suffered too.

National Volunteers week

I recently helped Basildon Billericay and Wickford Volunteer Centre promote National Volunteers Week by releasing balloons at the Eastgate Centre, Basildon.

It was a great pleasure to help celebrate the 21st Anniversary of National Volunteers Week and, in doing so, recognise the great contribution of volunteers to the local community.  Events like this will hopefully help to raise awareness of the importance of volunteering and encourage more volunteers to come forward.

Democracy in Burma

I have long supported greater democracy in Burma in order to end the persecution of various minorities, religious and otherwise, and have signed up to various recent Parliamentary motions to this effect.

For, during the last 15 years there has been no democratic reform whatsoever in the country.  Parliamentarians are therefore calling for the immediate release of Aung San Suu Kyi and the other 1300 political prisoners still being held, and for stronger action by the British Government and European Union to bring pressure to bear on the Burmese Military.