Caroline Lucas MEP

Almost 100 jobs are set to go at Sussex Police - bringing the total of public sector redundancies announced locally this week to almost 400. Green Cllr Ben Duncan has said that he will fight the cuts.

The police redundancies will affect officers of all ranks, as well as support staff. The move comes in the face of Government cuts to Sussex Police and the Tory-dominated Sussex Police Authority's setting one of the lowest Council Tax rises in Sussex's history.

Caroline Lucas, Brighton's Green Party MEP and parliamentary candidate for Brighton Pavilion, said:
"This news is an absolute disaster, for those who will lose their jobs, as well as their friends and families, for the local economy - and for the communities that will see crime and anti-social behaviour rise as a result.

"Just this last week we've learned of hundreds of job losses in the city - at Brighton Council, the University of Sussex, Lloyds, Threshers and Borders. Redundancies on this scale are likely to rip the economic heart from the community, and it stands to reason that taking bobbies off the beat and putting them on the dole is a recipe for more crime - and an immediate increase in the fear of crime.

"Brighton's Green Party member of the police authority, Ben Duncan, will be fighting these cuts - and leading calls for them to be offset by creating 31 new jobs in neighbourhood policing across Sussex.

"At this time, more than ever, we need Sussex Police to have the courage to believe residents when they say they are prepared to pay a few pennies more in their weekly tax bill to pay for more visible, neighbourhood-based, policing."
 
A final decision on the police budget for 2010-111 will be made in February.

For more information about the Greens view: www.brightonandhovegreenparty.org.uk