ALONG with all residents of Herefordshire, I am delighted that reported crime is reducing, and that we do better than the national average in nearly all categories. Our police force listens to local people – in my own area police officers and PCSOs are well-known, and involved in community life.

A prosperous country like Britain should however be able to reduce crime further, so that people feel safer. My party’s approach recognises the social causes of crime. We would improve the wellbeing, not just the material wealth, of our society, ensuring a fairer distribution of that wealth, and real quality of life.

I am shocked that our prisons are overcrowded – there must be a better way to deal with the 81% of women in prison convicted of non-violent crimes. Running prisons costs a fortune, and doesn’t stop re-offending – almost half of prisoners are re-convicted within one year of release.

Our way of dealing with offenders is different – we believe prison should be the place of last resort. Greens have been advocating restorative justice for years, so I was pleased to see that Herefordshire has been allocated £250,000 as part of the national trial due to start soon.

Like other areas, crime and justice services have suffered from this government’s cuts – locally for example the closing of Ross-on-Wye Police station’s front desk service. Nationally, there are now fewer police officers per head of population than at any time in the last 20 years. And legal aid has been slashed, limiting access to the law for ordinary people.

The Green Party opposes this government’s encouragement of commercial companies running prisons and parts of the justice system. Our precious public services should be publicly owned and run. The police must get the resources they need to continue working to make us all safe.