Parliamentary Spokesman calls for more police
Hundreds of residents sign petition in support

The Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Gillingham and Rainham launched a campaign on Saturday, July 28 in Gillingham High Street, asking local residents to sign his petition calling on the government to provide more police officers for gillingham and Rainham.

Cllr Rehman Chishti (Con, Rainham Central) said "having recently been out on patrol with the police I was alarmed to hear that there were only 22 police officers on duty that Saturday for the whole of Medway some 250,000 people. The only way to make people feel safe and prevent crime is by having a high visible local police presence.

"We in Medway have some excellent police officers but there are not enough of them, the ones that we do have are finding themselves doing more and more paperwork, because of this government."

The Petition also stated "we note that this government has failed in its duty in making our town safer by failing to deploy more police, and by failing to be tough on the sentencing of offenders."

During the course of the morning hundreds of people signed the petition and during the next few months the petition will be put up in different public places for people to sign.

Posted on August 5, 2007