Everyone has a right to feel safe and secure in their homes and in their community.
I’ve listened on the doorstep to households concerned about anti-social behaviour, parents worried about their children being exposed to drugs and recently we’ve seen Buxton market targeted by vandals.
The Conservative record on law and order is criminal.
The Conservatives talk tough on crime but the reality is, after 13 years, they are missing in action in the fight against crime.
Communities feel under threat, while police have disappeared from our streets. Trials are delayed for years because of the biggest courts backlog on record, with a record number of criminals getting off scot-free.
Locally, we have seen our police stations close including in New Mills and Chapel. In New Mills the hope of a Safer Neighbourhoods Team base has also been thwarted due to funding issues. This means across the length of High Peak, we only have two police stations and no custody suites.
There were 2074 police officers in Derbyshire under the last Labour government. By 2017 the Conservatives had cut 364 of those police officers.
As the next general election approaches the Conservatives have suddenly realised that their cuts to police forces are unpopular and unsafe.
Despite this, as of September 2022, there were still 73 less police officers protecting the towns and villages in High Peak than when the Conservatives came to power.
And they have cut the number of PCSOs by 15% in Derbyshire since 2010.
The local Conservative MP should be ashamed of his Party’s record on law and order.
The next Labour government will prioritise preventing crime by putting 13,000 extra neighbourhood police and PCSOs on our streets.
We will punish anti-social behaviour with tougher sentences for offenders and we will protect our communities with more police, more action to stop young people being drawn into crime, more prosecutions and by standing up for victims.
A Labour government means safer homes, safer streets and safer communities.
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𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐩 𝐫𝐞𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐞𝐬
One of the very worst legacies of 14 years of Conservative governments is the soiling of our beautiful, nature rich rivers in High Peak with raw sewage.
High Peak is one of the top fifty worst affected constituencies by sewage being dumped into our rivers. In 2023 the River Derwent and the River Wye suffered thousands of sewage overflows contributing to water pollution and ecological harm.
Yet the water company bosses responsible rewarded themselves with outrageous bonuses. In the 2023 financial year, the United Utilities CEO received a remuneration of £3.2 million including nearly a million pounds worth of annual bonus. Severn Trent, which was fined £2 million this year for reckless pollution, still lifted its bonuses to £3.36 million. We must stop rewarding failure.
I spoke about this issue in Parliament on the 75th anniversary of the foundation of our National Parks. I’m delighted that the government’s Water (Special Measures) Bill would enable government and the regulators to achieve the commitments outlined in the 2024 Labour manifesto:
• To block the payment of bonuses to executives who pollute waterways;
• To bring criminal charges against persistent law breakers;
• To impose automatic and severe fines for wrongdoing;
• To ensure independent monitoring of every outlet.
At the General Election, ending pollution of High Peak’s rivers and waters was a top priority. It was raised in all six hustings that I did, often more than once. In High Peak, the pumping of raw sewage into our precious rivers has become emblematic of the utter chaos and failure of the last 14 years.
So I greatly welcome the measures in this bill. The independent monitoring of all outlets will provide greater transparency for people in High Peak and will enable the regulators to hold United Utilities and Severn Trent to account. This, combined with the increased ability of the Environment Agency to bring forward criminal charges against law breaking water executives with tougher penalties including up to 2 years in prison, as well as new powers for OFWAT to ban bonuses unless water bosses meet higher standards of environmental protection, really should concentrate the minds of executives at Severn Trent and United Utilities.
It was a Labour government that created our National Parks 75 years ago and it is a Labour government that is taking the steps to protect the rivers that run through them for the next 75 years.
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Keep us out of Manchester as we are a national park NOT a city suburb
No essential service should be owned by private companies which are, by definition, more concerned with profit; water, gas, electricity, transport, post, etc, etc should all be in public ownership.
It's time to sort out the railway franchise companies. Time after time they ruin people's day travel. They cancel trains at the drop of a hat, knowing full well they don't have driver's. Engineering works over running, but they still run trains after taking hard earned money from the public to then say cancelled. They then charge more than your full return journey to travel the next few miles as a single ticket. It's absolutely disgusting. These private rail companies and water companies require some serious legislation. All the tip of the iceberg of these companies. Shameful.
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