Southport councillors held a meeting with senior local police officers at Southport Town Hall on Wednesday evening for a briefing and to exchange ideas following public concerns about instances of crime in the run up to Christmas.

The event was arranged by local Liberal Democrat leader Cllr John Pugh who was the town's MP until he stood down last summer, and is now a councillor for the town centre and West Birkdale.

The meeting took place on an all-party basis and allowed a valuable opportunity for senior police officers to explain recent events and answer a variety of questions.

Cllr Pugh commented: “There has been a long standing recognition that the prevention and detection of crime is a whole community matter. This meeting was not just a sharing of concerns, which we were able to do on a confidential basis, but also an opportunity to discuss joint initiatives particularly in combating low level crime and vandalism."

"Sadly, if Sefton Council goes ahead and abolishes the Southport Area Committee there will be few formal opportunities for the public and councillors to continue this dialogue."

Please , what do councillors know about crime but suppose
always good to talk.
Next week will the council print meal receipts for there members?
My associate runs a professional company, his engineers stay
in a Travel Lodge more often than not and given a meal allowance of £30 per day.
There again they only work and stupid, can't throw a sicky because of what happened on the office last night.

Wonder if Cllr Pugh let on to the good officers how he'd made their life so much harder by voting for the police cuts? Probably not... he tends to keep that quiet from most when discussing this sort of stuff.