Hucknall councillor hits out at Police & Crime Commissioner's £575 event that no-one came to

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request found no residents attended the event held in Kirkby-in-Ashfield last month.

And Coun Jim Blagden (Ash Ind), who represents Hucknall Central on Ashfield District Council, said the event was little more than ‘an expensive box-ticking’ exercise and challenged Mrs Henry to hold her next event of this type in Hucknall.Mrs Henry (Con) has been holding engagement events across the county in recent weeks to help guide her upcoming Police and Crime Plan.

Events have taken place across Mansfield, Ashfield, Broxtowe, Bassetlaw and Nottingham, with thousands of people targeted via online and social media adverts.

The FOI found Mrs Henry spent £100 on a social media advertising campaign specifically for the Kirkby event, which reached 27,009 people across Ashfield and Eastwood.

However, her office confirmed that, aside from three police officers, two members of the PCC staff, council workers and councillors, ‘no additional members of the public physically attended the event’.

The response claims a live stream of the video, which cost Mrs Henry’s office £350 plus VAT to run, had received 1,320 views online as of October 10.

This cost, the response says, includes the £100 spent on advertising.

But when the Local Democracy Reporting Service viewed Mrs Henry’s Facebook page, the video from the September 14 event had received just 207 views by October 22.

She has received more views for other events, including in Mansfield, Retford and Nottingham, but no videos from the engagements individually surpassed 1,000 views on her Facebook page by this date.

The FOI also revealed Mrs Henry spent a further £200 on hiring Kirkby’s Festival Hall Leisure Centre for the event, with £25.16 spent on refreshments provided by her office.

That took the total cost of the event to £575.16.

Coun Blagden said: “This was an opportunity for Hucknall residents to have their say on crime and community safety issues.

"The meeting, whilst held in Kirkby was for all 125,000 residents in the district including our town.

"By law, the Police and Crime Commissioner has to hold these meetings and it’s clear this was just an expensive box ticking exercise.

"As a local Hucknall councillor, I knew nothing about this meeting and obviously local Hucknall residents didn’t either

"If I did, I could have pressed the commissioner on my call for an emergency yellow police phone in the centre of Hucknall, close to the Post Office.

"I will be writing to the commissioner asking her to learn lessons from this debacle.

"I will also recommend that the next one is held in Hucknall.”

Commenting on the FOI, a spokesperson for the PCC’s office said: “These events are a pioneering new way to engage the public, and Caroline will keep experimenting with new and innovative ways to engage the people of Nottinghamshire in the work of their police force.

“With tens of thousands of people reached through Caroline’s social media outreach and hundreds more through her public events and outings, the commissioner remains convinced she can build new ways to bring the public with her as together we shape the future of our police in Nottinghamshire.”