South Staffordshire MP, Gavin Williamson has called upon Staffordshire Police to rethink their recent decision to no longer provide temporary road blocks for village carnivals. This decision could impact negatively upon the whole of South Staffordshire.
Staffordshire Police have announced that they can no longer use police resources to create rolling road blocks that ensure that local village carnivals can take place because of Road Traffic Legislation. Gavin Williamson MP has raised this issue with the Police directly as well as with the Ministry of Transport and the Home Office.
In his response to Gavin, Nick Herbert MP, the former Minister for Police made it clear that the Police still have the power to support local events writing:
‘They also have the general power to stop and direct traffic. How they carry out this enforcement, how they exercise their powers and how they deploy their available resources are matters for their own operational judgement taking into account specific local problems and demands that they face. It is not the case however that the issue of such closures in such circumstances are not allowed under current legislation’.
Commenting on this news Gavin Williamson MP said:
‘It is a very real concern that Staffordshire Police have said that the reason for this is due to Road Traffic Legislation. I am delighted that we have received this clarification from the Home Office and I hope that this will enable the Police to rethink what I think is a crass and bad decision that can easily be reversed. I for one would not want to see events such as the Kinver Country Fayre or the Great Wyrley Carnival effectively killed off. Reversing this decision would enable important local events that are currently under threat to go ahead.’