Concerns have been raised about a possible restructure of the police force in Reading that could see the town merged into an operational area that includes West Berkshire and Wokingham.
Currently, policing by Thames Valley Police is organised into 11 areas across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire, with each area being led by a superintendent.
Reading is one of these 11 areas, currently led by local policing area commander Steve Raffield.
However, a restructure could see the Reading policing area merged with West Berkshire and Wokingham to form a new West Berkshire policing area.
That was revealed at a Reading Borough Council policy committee meeting on Monday, January 23.
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Karen Rowland (Labour, Abbey) lead councillor for community safety, said that she was privy to a ‘workforce review notification’ in autumn 2022 which introduced a reduction of local policing areas from 11 to five.
She raised concerns about how policing could be affected in Reading if the restructure takes place.
Cllr Rowland said: “This will see us share a larger police for with both Wokingham and Newbury areas where the crimes and the sort of crimes that happen there are vastly different from what happens here.
“Fighting for police to attend concerns in Reading which currently has the second highest serious crime rate in the Thames Valley, in a town that records the highest levels of serious violence in Berkshire would be concerning to us in such a new allocation.
“I’d like as best you could to explain why you’re going to that structure, other than what I can perceive is another cost cutting measure, and explain how becoming a larger and wider area, how Reading is going to be sure of getting that policing attention that we need to a very important area.”
She also questioned where the moving of the Thames Valley Police headquarters to Atlantic House in Whitley fits into that restructure.
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In response, chief constable (CC) John Campbell said: “The review is about how we are generally delivering policing services.
“On a local level, the numbers aren’t affected, but you are starting to take out command functions and structures. At the moment, we’re in a place where we need to review to see how we’re delivering general policing service.
“On top of that we do have to look at saving £21 million, and I can’t get around that in order to balance my budget I’ve got to look at what I can do.”
No decisions on new policing areas have been made yet, and any changes will be subject to a consultation.
CC Campbell added: “Ironically, the five areas is the structure that we had in 2010.”
Earlier in the meeting, cllr Rowland thanked CC Campbell for his service, as he is due to retire. He will be replaced with Jason Hogg, the current deputy chief constable.
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