O'Brien gone 'Rogue'?

It seems that Councillor Mike O'Brien is on his own and could have gone 'rogue' on his assertions that PCSO numbers are to be cut by more than half.

Evidence for the 'Rogue behaviour' from the traditionally vocal local Tories is evidenced from multiple sources;

Firstly the Medway Conservative website, a traditional link machine to anything the cabinet member has to say, has not deemed it appropriate to copy his press statement, in what could indicate a distancing of the administration on the PCSO accusations.

Add into the equation Mark Reckless MP, who slapped out of his obsession with all things Europe, commented on Radio Kent yesterday morning that he was unable to confirm the statistics being put forward by his own Medway Conservative colleague, and backed up (in the third person) the position of the Kent Police, that any proposals would need to be put out to an appropriate consultation. Instead of mentioning Cllr OBrien he made particular reference to Cllr MacKinley who this blog has postured could be the rival for any leadership bid

The Medway Council press room - known for fawning over hyper-partisan Tories on the top floor of Gun Wharf - has also remain noticeably tight-lipped.

Of course Mike O'Brien could claim he was commenting as Chair of the Medway Safety Partnership - but there website and twitter feed has said absolutely nothing. Given Mike is the Chair of the organisation; its very odd indeed that nothing has been said

The local media have picked up the story because it is clearly concerning, but it is worth pointing out that in addition to the above not one Cabinet colleague or Tory Councillor has backed the Cabinet holder.

Given Mike was being tipped for the leadership job for the Gillingham & Rainham faction the silence from Rochester & Strood is well numbing. Not one Tory Councillor or surrogate has backed the call by Mike OBrien.

Even Red Reh - as he is known by some colleagues in Westminster - has'nt put his head up ... but then again he is too busy spinning (on the cricket pitch that is).

Looks like he is on his own then... and that in itself is a story worth exploring.

Update

Medway Conservatives updated there website a few hours after this post. Must have been caught in the inbox... notice however how they have dropped the reference to the number of officers. Do they think we are mugs?

Police row erupts

Cllr O'Brien attacks Kent Police for Tory driven cuts.

A major war of words is brewing tonight between the Kent Police and the Chair of the Medway Safety Partnership, Councillor Mike O'Brien after he released a press statement claiming the Police are proposing to cut the number of PCSOs by half.

If true, and there is no public information to support (on the face of it) an unprecendented leak by the Chair of the MSP, it has been challenged robustly by those tasked with safeguarding our streets - the Kent Police - who have tonight rubuffed the allegations as false:

In a tweet riposte to Cllr Mike O'Brien the Police made clear that no decisions had been made on PCSO numbers.

Medway Conservatives have a long and discredited history of playing politics with the Police which actually has positioned Medway in a difficut spot. In 2010, the River Ward by-election campaign was mired when Tories brazenly accused Ian Learmonth of triggering the by-election whilst it was actually poor research on selection by the Conservative selection panel.

Medway Conservatives are also in dispute with the Kent Police Federation and the Kent Police Authority and their own colleagues in Kent Conservatives in KCC. All are opposing the blatant politicisation of the elected Police commissioner proposals which were dreamt up by wonkers in CCHQ.

It seems that not only are these facts disputed but the Councillor has failed to be honest about why the Police are reducing front-line officers in the first place. As the Kent Police Federation stated in a supporting tweet we are 'still going to loose 500 cops & 1000 staff'

His Tory government, supported by our ineffective MPs, are directly responsible for cuts to crime fighters across our towns. Criminal cuts to Police budgets which Labour has consistently warned would send the wrong message to criminals from Rainham to Cuxton to the Peninsula villages and must be opposed.