Sussex Police announce review on controversial forced retirement rules
10:05am Wednesday 23rd May 2012 in News By Rebecca Evans
Long-serving police officers facing forced retirement could be spared under new proposals. Sussex Police will recommend to the Sussex Police Authority that rules which force officers to take compulsory retirement after 30 years service be withdrawn from September.
Thirty new officers will also be recruited at the beginning of next year it was announced today. The controversial rule – Police Regulation A19 – was introduced last year as the force looked to make £52 million of cuts by 2015.
Commander of Brighton and Hove Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett was among the 53 officers who would have been forced to retire if the rules had remained in place for the coming year.
Critics, including crime writer Peter James, said the rule meant the loss of the most experienced officers in the force and was a waste of the investment in years of training. Marion Fanthorpe, director of human resources, said because of savings made elsewhere Sussex Police has reduced the number of officer posts it needs to axe from 500 to 400.
Staff posts have also been reduced from 550 to 450.
She said: “It is with regret that we have had to lose a number of excellent officers, however it has been crucial for us to be able to make the necessary level of savings needed by 2015, given the rates of natural turnover of police officers.
"Along with faster than expected progress on making savings, we have also found higher levels of savings from areas other than direct post reductions than we originally anticipated.
"In light of this progress Sussex Police is proposing to the SPA that the force is in a financial position to end the use of regulation A19 from end of September 2012.
"We still have a long way to go to find all the savings we need, however it is good that we are now in a position to take these two positive steps."
The new officers will be selected from 98 candidates Sussex Police has kept in a recruitment pool.
They are expected to start by May next year.
Source: www.theargus.co.uk
Minister opens East Kent Access Road - Kent Online
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East Kent Access Road during construciton, from Minster to Pegwell
An £86m road is to be officially opened today by local transport minister Norman Baker.
The front bencher will join Kent County Council leader Paul
Carter and South Thanet MP Laura Sandys to officially open the East
Kent Access Road.
Its completion aims to help support economic growth and create jobs
across the eastern part of the county.
It also means better transport links to such sites as Manston
Airport; the Discovery Park on the former Pfizer
site, Eurokent - a mixed-use site - and Manston Business
Park.
Eurokent and Manston business parks are joint initiatives
between Kent County Council and Thanet District Council that have
the potential to deliver 550 homes and 4,000 jobs.
The new road was built by Kent County Council with £81.25 million
funding from the Department for Transport and £5.75 million from
KCC.
Tuesday, May 22 2012
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hsdeal wrote:
Great news... now we just need Thanet Council to ignore the NIMBYs and back Manston.
23 May 2012 9:22 AM
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