MP renews call for police station comeback after shopfront attack

Rother Valley MP Alexander Stafford (pictured) has repeatedly called on South Yorkshire police and crime commissioner, Dr Alan Billings, to bring a formal police presence back to the town, despite its last one being closed for over 20 years and sold back in 2020.

Mr Stafford claimed Dr Billings had neglected Rother Valley, with crime “higher than ever before”, after a man was racially abused and a shop front badly damaged at Laughton Off-Licence last Tuesday.

“Our areas are blighted by crime,” he said.

“The Labour police and crime commissioner refuses to act, underspending the budget by £2 million last year and refusing to reopen any police stations or deploy any mobile police stations in Rother Valley.

“Dinnington police station used to serve over 35,000 people but remains closed, in spite of rising crime rates locally, while choosing to re-open Edlington station in Doncaster to service around 8,000 residents.

“We need police stations open on our high streets to benefit Maltby, Dinnington, Aston, Swallownest, Thurcroft, Treeton and beyond so that every town and village in Rother Valley has proper police support.”

Dr Billings placed blame directly at the government for the rise in criminal activity across South Yorkshire because of the police of austerity  from 2010 onwards.

“Due to years of underfunding of the police service by the Conservative government and rising costs of inflation we do not have the funds to open, staff and maintain new premises,” he said.

“This period of austerity did untold damage to policing not just in South Yorkshire but across the country as numbers reduced by 20,000.

“It allowed criminal gangs to expand their drug markets out of urban and into rural areas.”

Dr Billings said building a new police police station in Dinnington would be a heavy burden on taxpayers and believes restoring neighbourhood teams in the wider Rotherham community, such as Dinnngton and Maltby, is the way forward.

“The only way to build and maintain a new police station would be through a substantial rise in council tax,” he said.

“With the current escalating rise in living costs and the struggles being faced by residents, I do not believe that is a fair burden to put on council tax-payers at this time.

“The local neighbourhood policing team are active within Dinnington and the dedicated police officer and PCSO are regularly out on patrol.

“They work closely with the public and with partner organisations to tackle crime and anti-social behaviour in the area.”

Dr Billings sent Mr Stafford a plea to work with him on the issue, rather than work against him.

“If Mr Stafford would really like to help both the police and residents, I would invite him to join with me in making representations to his government to give us next year a council tax freeze grant,” he said.

“This would enable me to balance the budget next year without having to call on council tax-payers for more money.

“This would both help hard-pressed residents and also be a genuine attempt to level up.”