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Kuldip visited Evesham with today with Evesham Labour local council candidate Helen Russell and local councillor Robin Lunn to see a footpath that is being blocked off to the public trying to walk there legally.

Kuldip Sahota, Labour’s Police and Crime Commissioner Candidate for the May 6th elections, visited Redditch on Saturday and dropped in to Redditch Self-Defence group to meet founder Peter Martin.

Peter Martin has worked tirelessly over many years to bring knife crime awareness and prevention to Redditch, giving talks in schools, youth groups and mentoring young people in the dangers of knife crime and working to cut incidences of stabbings and deaths in Redditch.

During the visit, Kuldip heard about the work that Peter does and toured the small gymnasium based in Windsor Road and spoke to some of the young people working on their fitness and self-defence skills.

On hearing that funding for the group is mainly based on businesses and personal donations, Kuldip said “one of my main priorities for West Mercia Police force is to provide funding to raise awareness of the dangers of knife crime and the effect that it has on families of loved ones of those who have been sucked in by drug related crime gangs often leading to serious injury and unfortunately death. I will appoint a drug and knife related Tsar to work with groups like Peter’s to educate young people on the dangers that face them by getting drawn in to gang violence.

“Peter has told me that just £1000 could allow him to run his group for three months and I intend, if elected on May 6th, to make sure that adequate West Mercia Police funding will allow initiatives like the Redditch Self-defence group to expand across the region.
Peter Martin said “it was good to meet Kuldip and to discuss with him his plans for knife-crime prevention. I was impressed by his commitment to groups such as ours who volunteer to make our town safer”.

Speaking after the visit Bill Hartnett, Leader of the Labour Group on Redditch Borough Council said “It was great to welcome Kuldip to Redditch and hear first hand from Peter about the work he does and Kuldip’s commitment to funding prevention of knife and drug related crime”

Robin Lunn, Leader of Worcestershire County Council Labour Group said: “I really welcome Kuldip’s pledge to invest in crime prevention where small amounts of money make such a difference, rather than spending more than £50,000 per annum on a deputy as the current Police Commissioner does”.

Labour  PCC candidate for West Mercia, Kuldip Sahota, slams Tory PCC’s  failings, “he should had worked on protecting the victims of crime rather than building his empire and tearing up alliance.” 

Kuldip Sahota, former Telford and Wrekin Council Leader, has launched his bid to become the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) with the aim of improving police services, reducing crime and taking control of spending.  

The Labour Councillor has hit out at the current PCC, John Campion, and his catalogue of failings in his bid to be re-elected on May 6.  

Kuldip explained: “John Campion has stumbled from one fiasco to another over the past five years. With half a decade of blunders under his belt, like most people I was looking forward to John moving on and letting someone more qualified take the wheel. Instead, he has once again put his name forward and further endanger the public and impact our dedicated police officers with his continued incompetence.

“His record speaks volumes. In 2018 Her Majesty’s inspector of constabulary {HMICFRS} said   overall grading in West Mercia, “requires improving” and on tackling serious and organised crime grade was,” inadequate”.

 Two years ago , he suddenly and abruptly  ended an  alliance with Warwickshire Police  which everyone had  said was working well ,  including the Home secretary  and the  Chair of the Warwickshire police federation– and as a result of  pulling his drawbridge  up , John  had  to pay £10.77m  in compensation to Warwickshire police. Local media called it,” a divorce settlement.” Neighbouring West Midlands PCC said that,” in a bitter dispute like this only the criminals are the winners.”

“On his watch police tax went up by 24.48% – more than the rate of inflation. The number of Police Officers has come down, but even with his cuts he still managed to eat into a whopping £51m of the police reserves of which we now only have £14m left.

 So it wasn’t surprising when we learned that knife crime, violent crime and sexual offences were all up. But his crowning failure was his own commissioned survey which showed a clear drop-in confidence amongst local communities for our police forces.”

Shaun Davies, Leader of Telford and Wrekin Council, said: “I want to appeal to the public to drop party politics and elect Kuldip the next PCC on May 6. His experience as former Council Leader means, he has what it takes to reduce crime, take a grip of our finances and deliver on promises.”

Kuldip added: “To make matters worse, John is not satisfied with his botched job as PCC, he  wants to take  over  the running  of our  two  fire authorities  as well , which could mean job cuts ,  thus  putting public  lives at risk .A move opposed by just about everyone including both chairs of these Fire Authorities who are conservative and Conservative councillors on these public bodies.

 Is this really the man we want leading our police forces in 2021 and beyond?

“May 6 is your chance to put someone qualified into the role of PCC. I will mend fences with all the neighbouring police force and develop closer working relationship with them all, including Warwickshire, to help tackle crime across our boundaries and  keep my hands off both Fire Authorities and  protect victims of crime.

 I will fight to make our streets safer whilst balancing the books.  Let’s work together and make May 6 the day we start to change the way we police our communities for a better and safer future.”