The Ulster Farmers’ Union is strongly urging people from the farming community to consider submitting an application to sit on their local Policing and Community Safety Partnership (PCSP). The Policing Board is currently looking to appoint independent members to the 11 reconstituted PCSPs, which will come into effect in April 2015 as a result of the reforms to local government and setting up of the eleven new “super-councils”.
UFU President Ian Marshall said: “The Policing and Community Safety Partnerships (PCSPs) are the bridge between the police and the community they are there to protect, it is where they learn about the issues which matter most to the community and how best they can work together to deal with it.It is therefore crucial that the concerns of the farming community are adequately represented on the new PCSPs as rural crime continues to be a serious issue on the ground. The UFU are working hard alongside other stakeholders to lobby for rural crime to be a priority at a strategic level, however, we need to be seeing action at grassroots level and for this to happen we need people from the farming community on these groups in order to ensure rural crime is given the prominence it deserves.
“We know farmers and their family members are busy people but rural crime is something that affects us all – even if you haven’t been a victim directly – and we want to ensure it is high on the agenda of the rural PCSPs. Nobody knows farming like people from the farming community and their input will be invaluable in both identifying key issues relevant to their area and on what the PSNI and other stakeholders can be doing to tackle them. The only way to make sure this happens is to ensure we have strong representation from the farming community on these new PCSPs, and I would strongly encourage farmers and their family members with a particular interest in rural crime to submit an application to join their local PCSP.”
Application deadline is 5pm on 28th November. For more information contact 028 9040 8500 or visit www.nipolicingboard.org.uk/pcsprecruitment
