A RETIRING police chief today criticised local councillors for failing to recognise they had an equal responsibility for community safety issues.

Chief Supt Mike Griffin said he was bitter that it was always the police and young people who incurred the wrath of councillors.

In a controversial parting shot, he said it was inevitable that there would be fewer front-line police officers on the beat in future years.

Chief Supt Griffin retires at the end of the week as Commander of the Pennine Police Division, which covers Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale.

He accepted that a number of successful working partnerships had been set up in the fight against crime and public nuisance.

But he said: "An awful lot of councillors are completely oblivious to what is going on and don't recognise they have an equal responsibility with the police for community safety."

"At council election time people make outrageous statements to get publicity, turning the finger on the police and having a harmful effect on policing."

He supported a campaign for more bobbies on the beat but said the reality was that budgets in real terms were being cut year by year and that in future there would inevitably be fewer front-line officers.

Chief Supt Griffin, who has also served in Blackburn, Accrington and Rawtenstall, added: "I see it as a big political ball game and I don't necessarily see the answer in the hands of the national politicians but local councils and local county councils. "The vast majority of policing money comes from the Home Office but local councils have the ability under the legislation to pay for extra police.

"Everything comes down to money."

He said he had lived with the criticism throughout nearly 40 years of service and current criticism was undermining public confidence in the police.

He added: "I have young officers at the sharp end of the job who are doing their damnedest to sort things out and who are being criticised for not being perfect.

"There is a mass of good work going on by police officers and community groups but it is easier for some people to criticise than to praise."

Most of that criticism, he said, was aimed at the failure to tackle problems of juvenile nuisance and quality of life issues rather than the more serious crimes of murder, rape, robbery or burglary.

Police constantly moved youngsters from pillar to post with the risk of alienating the parents of the future.

The vast majority of young people were not bad or evil but merely needed somewhere to congregate, such as the Briercliffe shelter scheme which had won a national recognition.

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