Sir, I am a retired senior officer with over 40 years’ service. Traditionally, the pay settlement for the police was always from September 1, irrespective of how long the negotiations took (report, Dec 12). In reneging on that tradition, the Government risks alienating a large section of the pubic sector. However, there is not likely to be too much sympathy for the police among the general public, who will remember occasions when they have made an emergency call and been told that there were no officers available to help, not to mention the souring of relations that speed cameras have caused.

One might question how the relatively paltry sum involved compares with the immense cost to the same public purse of the increased pay and allowances and the extremely generous pension settlement that MPs recently voted themselves.

Bernard James Luckhurst

Pinner, Middlesex

Sir, The police have an extraordinarily generous pension arrangement which can enable an officer to retire after 30 years on half-pay, and recent cases in the press have shown some officers retiring at the age of 50 who will probably be paid a pension of half-pay for many years.

May I suggest that someone makes an actuarial calculation of how much extra this will have added to the wage bill in the last year and that this is taken into account in the wage negotiations? In the longer term, the police pension deal is in need of revision to bring it into line with most other employees.

John Smart

Wilmslow, Cheshire

Sir, As an ordinary member of the public, I am disgusted by this. The police are not allowed to strike, and the reciprocity of this deal means that they should be properly paid.

But now we have a government desperate to make savings wherever it can, and going back on its word (not for the first time).

If the police do go on strike, I just hope that the units which protect government ministers go first.

G. Marlow

London

Sir, While police contracts are in the news, it might be useful to comment on their length. This small committee of volunteers regularly meets Chelsea police to discuss police practices, operations, initiatives, needs etc. It works well as a contact point between public and the police and relations and responses are excellent.

However, one factor impedes police performance: police contracts are amazingly short. Typically, an inspector at Chelsea will serve two years. This means that once he or she has got to know the local geography, the heroes and villains, the JPs, probation officers, court and youth workers, employers, councillors etc, he or she is moved on to gain experience in a contrasting field of police endeavour. community support and beat officers rarely stay much longer. Recently our much respected borough chief superintendent was moved to another borough after three and a half years — and we were told this was in terms of police contracts a massive overstay. Given Sir Ian Blair’s belief in the value of community policing we would ask him to consider that the protection of the local community should take precedence over a varied career pattern for police officers.

Roger Baresel

Chairman

Sector Working Group, Chelsea

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