My colleague Cllr Mary D’Albert recently attended an update on some significant changes currently taking place with the police service in Bury:

A presentation was given by the Superintendent of Bury. She started the meeting by saying in the past GMP had almost 8000 offices- over the last 5 years, things have changed- they now need to work in a smarter way.They expect to end up with between 4500 and 5000 offices by the end of restructuring.

At present in Bury we have two policy divisions one for Bury North and one for Bury South (based at Whitefield). The proposal in Bury is to merge the North and South Divisions, with the whole Bury Division working out of one hub (at Bury Police Station – though Whitefield Police Station will still be used). The reason for the change is to make use of police resources in a better way and ensure that there is resource on community policing. There will no longer be police stations in Radcliffe or Ramsbottom but the police are working with the Council and others to see if there are public buildings in all areas that can be used as a base as needed.

The division will be split into 8 areas – Prestwich will be one / Whitefield and Radcliffe another. Each area will have a Police Officer, Beat Officers and PCSO’s.

The restructure is planned to be completed by May 2016.

Please do let us know if you have any comments that you need to be fed back into the Police.

Steve