Police and Crime Commissioner candidates, Christopher Townsend (Hertfordshire), Rupert Moss-Eccardt (Cambridgeshire) and Linda Jack (Bedfordshire) have today united against the outsourcing of police services to G4S. Given recent events, such as the Olympics fiasco and the lack of public accountability they do not have confidence that G4S can handle police support work. Instead they are calling for a collaborative approach between Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Bedfordshire, in order to provide cost efficient police support services.

Christopher Townsend believes the whole process regarding outsourcing has been mishandled from the start. “Whilst alternatives are possible at this stage, the vast majority of work has focused on an outsourcing arrangement with G4S. There is no developed Plan B, this is despite there being 2 years during which plans could have been developed and it is being left to Police and Crime Commissioners to pick up the pieces.” He added, ‘I don’t see how, after two years, there is only one option on the table? I feel badly let down by the existing leadership of the Hertfordshire Police Authority,’

Linda Jack, who warned against the doomed Beds CC outsourcing contract with HBS when she was Unison Branch Secretary said “I don’t see why the same savings allegedly offered by G4S taking over the support services cannot be made through the three services working together, after all, there will be no imperative to make a profit for shareholders.”

‘We are aiming to lead the way here, the key is working together across our 3 counties and that is why, along with my Lib Dem colleagues, I support this proposal,’ added Rupert Moss-Eccardt. “Unfortunately Conservative candidates are obsessed with privatising key public services regardless of whether it leads to the kind of chaos we saw in the run up to the Olympics, we say hands off our police forces.”