Gangs hanging around next to homes on a busy main road in Fareham in Hampshire have broken windows, damaged a roof, destroyed fencing and stolen gates. The problem is the gangs congregate on a footbridge over the carriageway adjacent to the houses. One resident, Kim Langley, says she was forced to brick up one of her own windows.
Getting to work in the capital first thing next week will be a battle for those living in the southern region since workers are walking out overnight.
More than 100 firefighters tackled a massive Basingstoke construction site fire at Gershwin Road. Eyewitness Debbie Bennett said she came out of supermarket in the area and saw people looking into the sky. "I saw that smoke had blotted out the sun. There were flames high above the trees,” she said.
Hampshire police plans to cut 1,400 jobs as the public spending restrictions begin to bite. Forces are facing government cuts of 25 per cent, with Hampshire reducing its budget by £70m (25%) over the next four years. The job losses will see redundancies, positions left unfilled, redeployments and voluntary redundancies. The force also plans to share and sell buildings and increase collaboration with other forces, especially Thames Valley.
A money-saving plan has been given final approval for the Hampshire force to operate two helicopters with Sussex and Surrey Police instead of each flying their own. Flying two aircraft, one based at RAF Odiham in Hampshire, will save millions of pounds.
The southern region has been hit hard after the government slashed millions of pounds from council budgets. The inevitable by-product is that jobs will go in Hampshire. Portsmouth City Council will have to give back £1.6m to the government from its overall budget of £165m this year. To prepare for future cuts, the city council is looking to identify £15m savings immediately, which is likely to mean redundancies.
The Local Government Association annual conference in Bournemouth witnessed minister Eric Pickles questioning whether it was right to have separate council chief executives and executive leaders doubling up on work.
Chris Haselden, director of human resources at Devon and Cornwall Police, said the freeze on recruitment was necessary to combat the "unprecedented financial pressures now placed on the public sector.” He said: "While the full extent of the financial savings the Government is imposing for future years will not be known until the autumn, we do know that our position for the current financial years requires us to act n
Police and council chiefs have launched a campaign in Southampton to tell people that crime in the city is much lower than what they perceive it to be. Recorded figures show a dramatic 31 per cent fall in violent crime in the city centre at night time.
Senior military officers face a cull under plans to cut costs and make the Ministry of Defence "leaner", Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said. Dr Fox commented that the MoD’s backroom operations would have to shrink to ensure frontline troops got all the equipment and support they needed. He indicated that top brass and civil servant numbers would be reduced to help tackle a £37 billion black hole in the department’s finances.