Council ban public from police presentation

Police mystified as to why chief constable's presentation was held behind closed council doors

THAMES Valley Police chief constable Sara Thornton gave a presentation in Newbury on Thursday, however West Berkshire Council deemed her visit not in the public interest and locked its doors to outsiders.

No members of the press or public were notified of the visit, in which Chief Constable Thornton spoke about issues such as improving communication with the public in order to build trust and confidence in communities, and increasing the visible presence of the police.

Thames Valley Police sent a copy of the presentation to the Newbury Weekly News, and it has emerged senior police figures in the force who attended the briefing were at the time under the assumption it was open to the public.

The presentation showed that Thames Valley was on course to achieve many of its crime performance targets for 2012, and hoped to increase the number of special constables.

It also detailed the effect of the budget reductions the force has had to deal with and how it hoped to cope in future years.

A spokesman for West Berkshire Council, Phil Spray, said the briefing had been held in private in the past and the council assumed it was the case again this year.

“The Chief Constable's annual briefing to our councillors has always been held in private to allow discussion of operational matters which may not be in the public domain,” he said.

“This was the case for the briefing which took place before the meeting of council on Thursday. We have asked the police to clarify if they would like the briefings to be held in public in future.”

Thames Valley Police said the briefing was not held in private last year, and that next year it would indicate a preference for the press and public to be able to attend.