Last week I met with the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner and Chief Constable of Sussex Police to discuss policing and law and order matters which constituents have raised with me.

A particular concern, for residents in towns and villages, is speeding on our roads. In Sussex, the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership formed of Sussex Police, East and West Sussex Fire Service, East and West Sussex County Councils and Brighton and Hove Council takes the lead on reducing road casualties across Sussex with encouragement, education, engineering and enforcement. I am keen to see some more attention around enforcement because the presence of police with a camera acts to deter speeding drivers. However, I understand that this is resource intensive and enforcement action needs to be focussed on unsafe roads. We discussed the many options available to check whether speeding and safety is a problem. One option, ‘rumble strips’ are particularly effective at monitoring speeds over a period of time.  I would like to see greater use of 'rumble strips' where residents are concerned about speeding to test average speeds and for the police to then enforce where speeding is shown to be an issue.

Some constituents have asked if the police are ignoring low-level crime. I was reassured that the police record every crime reported to them and carefully assess action required. I was shown a grid which guides the police to weigh up the severity, public interest, impact on the victim, likelihood of conviction and other matters in prioritising their resources. This is done for every investigation to ensure a consistent and proportionate approach.

The safety of our borders is of particular interest in a coastal county such as ours. I have had enquiries about illegal immigrants landing up in Bexhill but the police confirmed that they had received no actual reports or sightings on local beaches. We discussed two recent convictions for cross-channel people-smuggling of Albanians in to Kent and West Sussex. The case in Kent was particularly disturbing. The criminals had equipped themselves with life-saving clothing but given none to the 18 immigrants. The boat was leaky and the coastguard and RNLI were put to risk in apprehending and rescuing. For this the two men, known criminals, were given a derisory 4 year prison sentence (meaning they will serve 2 years). I am going to write to the Ministry of Justice to demand longer sentences. Given one of these voyages can net £100,000 per boat, the deterrent needs to be much stiffer. No wonder criminals are moving from armed robbery to people-smuggling when comparing the sentencing for both.

I am planning to spend more time with Sussex Police in the coming months, in both their command-control centre and out on patrol. The police do a great job and more of their resources are being used on technology and intelligence gathering to ensure that crime cannot occur in the first place. We may see less of the police but the crime rate has fallen by a fifth since 2010 so this approach is working. I am glad that police budgets have been ring-fenced by the Government from spending cuts. I will be calling for more investment in our border controls to ensure that we know who is entering our waters.