The Blackpool Gazette, Lancashire Post and Blackpool Lead invited the candidates standing for the Fylde constituency at the upcoming general election to a hustings in which they fielded questions from voters.
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given time to answer questions from an audience at The Lowther Pavilion Theatre in Lytham.
Four out of the seven people on the ballot took part in the event with Cheryl Morrison (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom), Brendan Wilkinson (Green Party) and Brook Wimbury (Reform UK) all absent.
In order of appearance on stage:
ANNE AITKEN (Independent)
TOM CALVER (Labour)
MARK JEWELL (Liberal Democrats)
ANDREW SNOWDEN (Conservative Party)
The candidates standing for election on 4th July were each given time to answer questions from an audience at The Lowther Pavilion Theatre in Lytham.
Four out of the seven people on the ballot took part in the event with Cheryl Morrison (Alliance for Democracy and Freedom), Brendan Wilkinson (Green Party) and Brook Wimbury (Reform UK) all absent.
In order of appearance on stage:
ANNE AITKEN (Independent)
TOM CALVER (Labour)
MARK JEWELL (Liberal Democrats)
ANDREW SNOWDEN (Conservative Party)
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00Good afternoon. At midnight on Thursday we were aware of an altercation outside of our house when someone threw a bottle at our house.
00:09What then happened was a young lady was under the threat of domestic abuse.
00:15Between my wife and I we were able to call 999 and bring her into our house.
00:20But she was in a very stressed position, very upset, very ill.
00:25It took just over two hours for the police to turn up to an emergency call.
00:32At this time the young lady, unable to stop her, she self-harmed in our house, stabbed herself.
00:39We managed to get her outside. We called 999, 111 a number of times.
00:44She collapsed, convulsed and stopped breathing before the police arrived.
00:49I really want to say that the police officer who passed us before said,
00:53I'm very sorry, I'm on another call, I can't stop, did save her life.
00:57The credit to the Lancashire Police and all of the blue light services is astonishing.
01:02I work with the NHS. I totally respect the blue light services.
01:06But for God's sake, what would you do locally to make sure we have the effective blue light services we need?
01:14A two hour wait for a young lady aged 21 who was in considerable danger and could have died that evening is not acceptable.
01:22And she did die, she stopped breathing, her heart had stopped, the police officer brought her back.
01:27What would I ask ladies and gentlemen, would you do locally to make sure we have those blue light services effectively?
01:33Thank you.
01:45So in all of those domestic abuse and mental health aspects as well,
01:53the Liberal Democrats want to see specific trained people in those areas so that they can respond.
02:01So the handover of those with mental health issues, so there is quicker response to domestic abuse.
02:09Because when it kicks off, and I've seen it first hand down the street where I was,
02:14and I've got to say I've not seen quite so many police cars in one area.
02:20There was kind of almost a comical aspect to it.
02:25Fortunately no one was harmed, no one's life was endangered in the circumstance you've just explained, sir.
02:32But I think that has to be the case, where you have trained personnel within those blue light services who respond and prioritise those types of incidents.
02:44Andrew, you're the obvious person for me to come to first, which is why I didn't turn around.
02:50Well first of all, thank you, sir, for the way that you handled that situation.
02:56That lady obviously owes an awful lot of why she's still here to you, and you should be proud of that.
03:02And thank you for taking the time to thank the individual police officer for what they did.
03:06Because quite often in these circumstances, the work of the individual officers, the paramedic goes amiss.
03:12And actually, some of these officers, I've had the privilege for the last three years of attending the Police Bravery Awards,
03:18and the bravery of officers and the sacrifices they make are unbelievable.
03:22Local based policing for response times is absolutely critically important.
03:27For the three years I was Police and Crime Commissioner, we increased significantly the number of officers in the area, district, neighbourhood and response teams.
03:37So there were a number of areas of Lancashire that were operating what was called the hybrid model,
03:43which basically meant there weren't enough officers in effectively what are the smaller and less demand areas for policing.
03:50We are privileged to be living and talking about Fylde, which has some of the lowest crime rates in Lancashire.
03:58However, that does not mean that Fylde does not deserve the basics and does not pay for, through the precept, the basics of policing services.
04:08And they were not there in place.
04:10So making sure there was an open police station that people can go to,
04:13but equally making sure that a significantly increased number of officers were based from Kirkham,
04:18was absolutely critically part of that work that I did as Police and Crime Commissioner.
04:23Two hours is not an acceptable wait time in those circumstances.
04:27Having been Police and Crime Commissioner for three years, I have learned the hard way that it is not right to take judgment on individual cases,
04:36because until you go away and look at it and want to know what else the police were dealing with at that moment in time,
04:42it is very difficult to provide a specific answer to the case.
04:45But for me, local policing in each of the districts of Lancashire has been something that I have invested millions in already as Police and Crime Commissioner
04:54and is something I would continue to advocate.
04:56All of the main parties have pledged more police officers in their manifestos,
05:00and I would continue to advocate that that goes towards making sure that response times are cut by local police officers.
05:08Tom, to you.
05:14First of all, I was talking earlier about it being on everyone to make society better,
05:19and that is a great example of being presented with a very difficult choice,
05:24a very difficult situation, and doing the right thing.
05:29It is very easy sometimes to just lock your doors and hope the problem passes on by, so thank you very much.
05:38I was talking even more recently this evening about people being forced into a number of bad choices and not being able to make a good one.
05:49Police response comes down to having enough police officers to respond, first of all,
05:54and that is why Labour is planning to have 13,000 more police officers and policing community support officers,
06:01because we need more people out there to answer those calls.
06:06When it comes to domestic violence, what we need is more specialists.
06:10Too often it is an area that is neglected.
06:13Too often, frankly, violence against women especially is an area that is too often neglected, not just in cases of domestic violence.
06:22So we are going to have domestic violence specialists in police call centres
06:27so that they can get across those calls and make sure that they are being given the clarity they need.
06:34It goes further, though. It goes to making sure that those who perpetrate domestic violence are dealt with properly.
06:41We are going to have specialist units that will do that when we have more officers.
06:46And it is also about making sure that we are prosecuting these cases effectively as well,
06:52because too often perpetrators, when they are brought into a courtroom, don't see the inside of a cell, and that has to stop.
06:59We need to do more to protect women in our society.
07:04I also believe that there needs to be training on the people that actually take the call.
07:11They need to be trained. They need to know how to triage correctly.
07:15It is no good sending an ambulance to a repeat offender who keeps calling five times a day,
07:21and then nobody can get an ambulance to somebody who really needs it.
07:24We need more rapid response. We need community policing.
07:29But training needs to come from those people that are actually on the phone,
07:33who can realise that it is an emergency, and get that ambulance and the police there.
07:39It is no good being in a list, waiting, or while we have gone to see the chap who has cut his finger,
07:45because that does happen. My friend is a paramedic, and it is absolutely frustrating.
07:50So I would definitely put more training into people that are going to triage,
07:54community policing, so they can get there on time, and more rapid response.