CONCERNS have been raised about the city council’s plans to continue spending £75,000 a year on private security guards to patrol the city centre and “do the job of the police”.

Labour councillor John Walsh raised the issue during a discussion about the city council’s budget at a meeting on Monday night, and called for the scheme to be dropped or for its cost to be reduced.

He said he had supported the scheme when it was introduced back in 2017, but said “as time’s gone on I think it’s becoming more difficult [to justify the cost]”.

“It’s costing the council £75,000 a year to do a job which, to be honest, should be the role of police officers in our city,” Cllr Walsh added.

“Our residents are paying twice.”

The scheme involves two city centre security officers (CCSOs) from Venture Security, contracted by the council for 80 hours a week, in a bid to reduce street drinking and antisocial behaviour, while directing homeless people to support agencies.

Cllr Walsh asked whether continuing with the officers was now “overkill” and suggested the money saved by axing the scheme should be spent on areas surrounding the city centre.

“The work that has gone on in the last two years in the city centre has been excellent, and I’m fully supportive, but in the suburbs I’ve got concerns about the litter and lack of cleanliness in those areas, which we have ignored to focus on the city centre,” he said.

Fellow Labour councillor Ian Tomes agreed, and said he felt the scheme does not offer “value for money”.

And he raised questions about the impact of the CCSOs, saying he expected to see antisocial behaviour drop over the past year, whereas in his opinion it has risen.

Cllr Tomes said the city was still experiencing antisocial behaviour and low level crime from young people, as well as assaults in the centre and a continued presence of rough sleepers.

“These sort of problems should have gone, as we’ve spent £75,000 on a city security scheme,” he said.

But Conservative Sven Hocking defended the scheme, and said the officers provide intelligence to the police about drug dealing, street drinking and antisocial behaviour, work with Alabare to address issues around rough sleeping and support city centre business owners.

“I do understand that there’s a feeling from some that this is the police’s job, but at the same time I know what it was like before they [the CCSOs] were here and I have no intention of letting things get back to that,” he said.

“They do a whole load of stuff that otherwise just would not get done, and a result [of removing them] would be an increase in all the things we employed them to stop in the first place.”

Cllr Hocking said the CCSOs would have increased powers to tackle antisocial behaviour “in due course” and that he had “no intention of removing them”.

Labour councillor Caroline Corbin also praised the scheme, particularly the CCSOs’ relationship with Salisbury’s rough sleepers, adding: “The amount spent is a lot of money, for a role which as a parish council we probably shouldn’t be providing, [but] I do think we need to provide something.”

In the year between November 2017 and October 2018, the CCSOs logged 2,590 incidents, including 1,051 involving alcohol, 323 that were drugs related and 244 of begging.

Salisbury Inspector Pete Sparrow said the CCSOs are an “effective eyes and ears” for the police, and said he welcomed their assistance.

Alabare’s service manager previously said the CCSOs do a “brilliant job”, and are “trying to work hard with the rough sleepers”.