Dinner with the new Chief Constable
Last night I had the pleasure and honour of sitting next to Chris Sims, the new Chief Constable of Staffordshire. He was the guest speaker at the Supper Club organised by Stone’s Independent Voice - the group of independent councillors, of which I am a member from Stone Town Council. (I do not believe that party politics has any part to play in town council affairs - only to cause division and confrontation)
Chris has only been in post six weeks but his speech made it perfectly clear that he has ‘hit the ground running’. He has already been to Stone and walked around the town and it’s trouble spots. Yes - he explained that he was well aware of the issues with regard to young people hanging around St Michael’s churchyard at night and the ‘problems’ sometimes caused by our night time economy. The Chief Constable was telling us he’d been to see our trouble spots univited - and before he’d even settled into his new office! I was amazed!
And he made it perfectly clear that he was not going to be a slave to government targets. He saw the future effectiveness of the force being based on building a relationship of trust and confidence with the public. Music to my ears!
I am in no doubt that Chris is conscious of Stone’s pride in being a safe and happy place to live and work. I’m sure the force in in safe hands.
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