Last updated 15:09, Thursday, 20 November 2008

I WISH to thank you for giving prominence to the threatened redeployment of police officers from Tynedale to Ashington and Bedlington, (Courant, November 7).

Nothing that Chief Superintendent Kevin Lambert said in your front page article reassured me. Why will the force not comment on the exact numbers of officers involved?

I assume that it is because they do not wish to increase the public fear of crime by admitting how few officers are on duty in Tynedale at any one time, even before some of them are moved elsewhere.

As a Tynedale resident and council tax payer, I feel that I have the right to know the numbers involved, especially when it has been reported in recent weeks that crime figures in Tynedale are up on last year.

I believe in any case that to redeploy officers to stations so far from their homes would be a mistake. Having to drive a 60 to 80 mile round-trip just to get to and from work, on top of coping with shift work, would put the re-deployed officers at increased risk of road accidents and stress. Their health will inevitably suffer, leading to increased levels of sickness and even fewer officers on duty across the district.

I predict that, if the redeployment goes ahead, current levels of resources, not just in Tynedale but in the county as a whole, will fall.

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