Police and Crime Commissioner's £50,000 a year deputy to leave

sareda

The Police and Crime Commissioner for Cheshire has announced that he will not be renewing the role of his deputy at the end of her 12 month contract.

Following a restructure of his support team, David Keane has decided that Sareda Dirir will leave the office at the end of the month.

David Keane said "Sareda is an experienced and dedicated public servant and she has been an asset to the team over the last year, helping to support our shared goals.

"She has assisted real and positive changes for this office, including helping secure 'white ribbon' and 'living wage' employer status.

"Critically, she has also helped drive forward the equality and diversity agenda, and has worked to put Cheshire at the centre of British Policing through hosting the 2017 National Black Police Association Conference.

"I would like to thank Sareda for her dedication in serving the people of Cheshire over the last year, and wish her every success for the future."

Deputy police and crime commissioner, Sareda Dirir, said: "I am extremely proud of what we've achieved as an office over the last 12 months.

"Together as a team - working with our partners and Cheshire Constabulary - we have developed a number of innovative and collaborative initiatives that are helping make our communities across Cheshire safer."

Mr Keane was heavily criticised following her appointment on a salary of £50,000 in March 2017. The issue of independence was raised by the Cheshire Police and Crime Panel during an interview as her parents and the Commissioner are fellow Labour councillors for the same ward on Warrington Borough Council and she has known him for about 20 years, which the Commissioner apparently did not tell the panel.

Additionally, the Cheshire Police and Crime Panel, were not provided with her CV for the interview during which her behaviour was described as 'aggressive' and 'defensive'.

The Commissioner set out his vision for his third year in office on Monday, 12th March, saying he will put neighbourhood policing at the forefront of his priorities and will ask the public how PCSOs should spend their working week to ensure they are providing the correct support to protect local communities.

This is part of the commissioner's budget setting for 2018/19, where he committed to redeploying PCSOs so there is one placed in every community across Cheshire.

David said: "PCSOs are an important part of local policing teams across Cheshire and should have more visibility in our communities.

"They should be the 'eyes and ears' of local communities, gathering intelligence to deal with complex police issues, whilst providing support to vulnerable residents, and focusing on making our roads safer."

The restructuring of his team will include the recruitment of a new chief finance officer when the current post-holder retires at the end of March and will reduce the overall cost of the office.

David Keane said "Reducing the cost of my office to just 0.4% of the whole Cheshire policing budget will allow me re-invest savings into neighbourhood policing and ensure the right resources are in place to protect the people of Cheshire."

He added "We are a small and efficient team, and we've set out to achieve some incredibly bold ambitions for my third year in office.

"Together, we will drive forward the main priorities of my police and crime plan and that means continuing to build closer relationships with our partners and the wider communities of Cheshire, and ensuring we're holding the constabulary to account on the key issues that matter."

Tags:
Cheshire Police & Crime Commissioner, David Keane, Sareda Dirir
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Comments

Here's what readers have had to say so far. Why not add your thoughts below.

Mark Russell
Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 12:36 pm
with the wage she earnt im not surprised she is leaving. She could retire on that money, disgraceful.
Julian Barlow
Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 1:04 pm
"Critically, she has also helped drive forward the equality and diversity agenda...”

Critical to David Keane perhaps. I’m fairly certain that the people paying her £50k salary would much prefer she’d helped drive forward the arrest and successfully prosecution agenda.
Manuel Golding
Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 2:03 pm
The PCC tells us that she has been "helping secure 'white ribbon' and 'living wage' employer status." Wow! That alone must be worth £50000 of anybody's brass! With a success like that the PCC must be forlorn at losing such a talent. But a bonus to the cash strapped Cheshire tax payers.
Julian Barlow
Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 2:14 pm
Apparently to achieve White Ribbon status is "to pledge never to commit, excuse or remain silent about male violence." Have we really paid £50,000 for someone within the police force to commit to this basic level of human decency? It should be a prerequisite of the job.
Nick Jones
Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 4:15 pm
Sadly missed .. ! NOT ...
just need to cut the rest of the unnecessary unwanted PCC empire now, that costs us tax payers so much.. for no return .... Disgraceful and disastrous appointment demonstrating cronyism is alive and well !
Peter Evans
Tuesday 13th March 2018 at 7:30 pm
Good. About time this post was cut (well, 12 months ago would have been better). As described by comments already all she achieved for £50k (+ benefits ?) was stuff that I would assume was a public service basic requirement. So, she achieved nothing. Actually I cannot identify a single positive impact that this PCC has had (the only impact at all is to waste huge amounts of public resource and prove what a pointless joke his role has been). But he has proven time after time to be too thick skinned to listen to his community.
Robert Kemp
Wednesday 14th March 2018 at 4:56 pm
Why does Cheshire wish to be at " the centre of British Policing"? Surely that is something for Manchester, Birmingham or London Met police forces. Why do we have a " National Black Police Association"? Surely that in itself is racially unacceptable since it is not open to all members of the police.
Barry Buxton
Wednesday 14th March 2018 at 5:06 pm
Why isn't there more vociferous dissent re the PCC element of our Council Tax bill about to increase by 7.3%!!
Manuel Golding
Wednesday 14th March 2018 at 5:06 pm
Peter Evans, may I be so forward as to tell you what the current PCC has achieved?
For whatever the man's motives, he has "engineered" an excellent Chief Constable out of his post. Probably the CC with his excellent record of service and most important of all, ensuring the job of policing Cheshire is achieved in an effective manner; he may well have found it necessary to "tear a few strips" off those not doing the job but so what. Maybe those
shrinking violets should first of all look to their laurels before whimpering like little children.
So that it what the PCC has achieved, lost Cheshire an excellent police commander.
I wonder what we will get as replacement?
Gerald Norden
Wednesday 14th March 2018 at 5:46 pm
Was it really necessary to create the role of a PCC...yet another "civil service" cost to all.