Traffic police cuts spark roads fear

OFFICERS fear slashing the number of traffic police in Greater Manchester and closing their Chadderton unit will increase road deaths in Oldham.

Chief Constable Peter Fahy is expected to make the decision today to reduce the number of traffic officers from 178 to 100 in a move blasted as “diabolical.”

It will leave Oldham and Saddleworth served by remaining units in Leigh and Wythenshawe, while the Birch motorway post is also expected to be axed.

Mr Fahy will meet with top officers today to discuss the plan but has said the cuts won’t affect front-line policing.

But one traffic policeman told the Chronicle: “It’s absolutely diabolical. Without a shadow of a doubt road deaths will increase.

“They want to close the road policing unit at Chadderton which currently serves Ashton, Rochdale and Oldham and split the staff between Leigh and Wythenshawe.

“The A62 is one of the most dangerous roads in Britain and we would have no road policing units located in the proximity. If something happens in Oldham then we will potentially have a road policing car coming all the way from Wythenshawe.

“They could realistically get away with reducing staff to 100 but it will become a lot more specialist. Staff are not happy. There’s a lot of upset about it.

“The policing report card shows road policing to be the only area of GMP graded as excellent so they have dismantled the only branch in its organisation that’s excellent.

“GMP benefits from the safest roads in Great Britain as the number killed and seriously injured are among the lowest.

“Road policing units really are a victim of their own success because the figures are so low they are seen as an easy option to take staff off. Every division used to have its own traffic unit.”

He added that the plans include increasing staff by 56 in the tactical aid unit and an extra eight dog handlers.

Another officer said it will leave 20 officers on duty at any one time to cover the whole of Greater Manchester when they are already struggling to cope when there are two major incidents at the same time.

Bosses say the proposal will make traffic policing more efficient as GMP struggles to make government-enforced cuts of £134 million in the next four years.

Superintendent Steve Nibloe, in charge of the traffic network section, said: “A number of options are currently being explored to see how we could be more efficient.

“The Road Policing Units feature in some of these considerations but no formal decision has been made on this yet.”