‘Not even a drop in the ocean’ - Readers have their say as Lancashire gets 153 new police officers

Police and Crime Commissioner Clive Grunshaw said he is ‘disappointed’ at the ‘grossly unfair’ allocation of funding for Lancashire Constabulary compared to other police forces.

The Government has pledged to hire 20,000 new officers across England and Wales over three years. In the first wave of the roll-out, it will provide £750m to the 43 forces to recruit up to 6,000 new officers by the end of 2020-21.

Lancashire’s share of the allocated funding will see 153 extra officers over the next 12 months.

Here are a selection of your views:

"The problem won’t go away until criminals have a deterrent. Suspended sentences mean nothing."Mark Smith

"Not as if there’s a general election coming........."Barry Probin

"Wouldn’t it be better to go old school and have officers dressed smartly that exudes authority, rather than have them dress like night club bouncers in base ball caps?"Andrew Bell

"Haven’t they lost 750 under the conservatives?"Mark Fairhurst

"Considering the same government systematically slashed the Police budget, to claim praise for replacing a small number of officers is beyond belief. But, if you’re daft enough to believe it I suppose..."Keith Ross

"A small start. Very small...."Nina Sinclair

"Are we supposed to be grateful?"Nadia Wallace

"It’s not the number of officers that’s the problem, it’s the absolute lack of quality due to the restrictions of ‘diversity.’"Steven Michael Macdonald

"I think the diversity issue is mainly because the Police force has been found to be institutionally racist and sexist. Diversity is needed if you want to help victims of sexual abuse, racial hatred etc etc. "Mark Tierney

"Not just the numbers that are important here, people are forgetting that the loss of police officers on the street came with a lot of forced or non-forced early retirements."Mike Hopkins

"150 for the whole of Lancashire isn’t even a drop in the ocean. Have a look at how many London’s getting."Ali Donald

"Unless they are being trained to be real police, who are allowed to do their jobs properly, instead of the politically correct drones we get these days, it will have zero effect on crime."Keith Hall

"750 experienced officers gone replaced by 150 raw recruits."Polly Kay

"They won’t be on the streets in under 12 months... need to go through recruitment, training and probationary period."Emma Hannan

"Aah, that’ll be 150 towards the 754 cops we lost through austerity ....."Lynn Adele