New mayoral consultation on shaping police, fire and crime plans for the region

As Mayor of York and North Yorkshire, I have spent the last five months exploring our region and listening to residents and businesses share concerns and hopes for their communities.

Everyone I speak to wants to ensure our region is a safe and beautiful place to live, work and visit.

When I was elected, I assumed the powers and responsibilities of Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner. Working with Jo Coles, my Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime, we have a duty to set the priorities and plans for North Yorkshire Police and North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service.

As Mayor, I want to ensure that everything we do at the Combined Authority helps build healthy and thriving communities. Combating anti-social behavior, rural crime and violence against women and girls is my top priority. However, everyone in York and North Yorkshire, whether they live in urban or rural areas, are a resident or a visitor, has different experiences of crime, directly or indirectly. Some people will have issues that don't affect everyone, and I want your voice to be heard. For this reason we have launched a mayoral consultation. The results will help us develop police, fire and crime plans that meet your needs.

By listening to you and learning about your experiences with crime, we can ensure our services have the investment they need, and our police and fire departments focus their resources on keeping communities as safe as possible and tackling the crime that are most important to you. We can also better understand how we need to work together to ensure our early intervention and prevention work is the best it can be.

North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service not only wants to know about crime in your area, but we also want to hear from you. As England's largest county with numerous rural areas, ensuring the best possible response times to emergencies across the area requires a lot of planning and a thorough understanding of local risks. Fire and rescue services want to improve the way they report their response times so they can be more open with you about their performance.

I want to ensure that as many people as possible take part in our consultation and help us understand how the combined authority can support the police and fire service to improve our safety.

Let us know what you think at www.yourpoliceandfire.com, where there are two short police and fire surveys. They last a maximum of ten minutes each. My Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime, Jo Coles, and I greatly appreciate your help with this.

Our police and fire plans impact everyone who lives here, works here and visits us. After meeting with police and fire colleagues and people who have used their services, I know we have highly professional and dedicated teams keeping our region safe. However, it is crucial that these services meet the needs of communities and are as good as possible.

I am incredibly proud of the impact of the services we commissioned. Through the York and North Yorkshire Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning, we are already investing millions of pounds a year in services aimed at preventing crime and helping victims cope with their experiences. This year alone we were able to help over 18,000 people in our region. This includes supporting people through the legal process, providing funding for crime prevention technologies, offering mental health support programs and services to offenders to help them break the cycle of reoffending. We have achieved this by working with you over several years to find out how we can make these services as accessible and well-resourced as possible. We want to continue to hear from you and support the improvements you need from us.

Decentralization is about giving local people more control and through consultations like this we can give you the opportunity to have a say in how some of the most important services are run.

The consultation is open until Monday 18 November at www.yourpoliceandfire.com. Surveys are also available in a variety of accessible formats by calling 01423 569 562, emailing [email protected] or writing to the Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning, Harrogate Police Station, Beckwith Head Rd. turn, Harrogate, HG3 1FR.

You can keep up to date with the great work of the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority by subscribing to our newsletter. A registration link can be found on the home page of our website at: www.yorknorthyorks-ca.gov.uk.