Crime impacts all of us. It makes us feel less safe. It sullies our beautiful natural environment. It makes us less proud of our communities.
I’m determined that our villages should be some of the safest places to live in the world. We’re already making really good progress on that. We have record numbers of police officers in Hertfordshire – out on the street, keeping people safe. Crime is down 13% since we were re-elected in 2019 and neighbourhood crime (things like residential burglary, personal robbery, theft from the person and vehicle crime) is down 27%.
But we must now go further and do more. That’s why I’ve made making our communities safer one of my top priorities for the future of our area.
I want to tackle problems of road safety and speeding – so that no one has to feel unsafe walking, cycling or driving in our constituency. There is no silver bullet, so I’m looking case-by-case at the roads that you tell me are unsafe, and then working with local Councillors, the police and others to improve safety.
I want to make sure we really clamp down on fly-tipping – a crime that not only blights our enjoyment of our rural communities, but which can also have significant public health impacts. The Government has introduced tougher sentences for fly-tippers and now we must make sure that we use those to full effect in Pirton and across North Hertfordshire – making sure fly-tipping isn’t considered a minor offence. And I will continue to campaign against Labour and the Liberal Democrats’ plan to cut bin collections, which would make fly-tipping even worse.
I have also heard some appalling stories of anti-social behaviour in our communities over recent months. I want us to be absolutely clear that anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated here.
Our communities should be a place that we all feel proud of. To achieve that, we need to make sure that people can feel safe in our towns and villages. I’ll continue to do all that I can to make that happen.
