I WAS outraged to read the article on Page 26 of the Journal (May 4), in which Angus Macpherson, Wiltshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner stated that he was ‘encouraged’ by the 11 per cent rise in Wiltshire’s crime rate.

Mr Macpherson went on to say that the results had been impacted by a dramatic improvement in the quality of crime recording after Wiltshire Police took a much stricter approach to recording practices.

What a load of hogwash spin! Firstly, in saying what he said, Mr Macpherson is by definition, claiming that hitherto, Wiltshire Police’s recording methods were not up to scratch. If this is the case, why should we believe that he/they have got it right now?

What I didn’t see in Mr Macpherson’s all-too self-satisfied and glib statement was the much more important statistic of how many crimes were and are actually being solved. One half of the equation Mr Macpherson is not the answer we, your paymasters, deserve!

Salisbury’s security is to me, fast becoming a joke. We have too few police officers to effectively combat crime, the excuse for a Police Station in Bourne Hill, (in reality little more than a kiosk), police vehicles making do with a public car park rather than a secure compound, the ludicrous fact that we in Salisbury don’t even have a custody suite, relying instead on transporting offenders to Melksham at our expense plus the woeful lack of CCTV in our city mean one thing: Salisbury is a much less safe place to live than it used to be and much less safe than it should be.

If this thin spin is all that our money which is paying for your job can produce Mr Macpherson, may I suggest you resign now, get a proper job and stop wasting our time and money.

Yan Webber, Salisbury