Articles in category Public

William Henry Willmott: my police officer ancestor

4th May, 2021

Policing and law enforcement is part of my family history going back to the Victorian era. My great great grandfather, William Henry Willmott, shown here in his uniform, was a police constable in London in the 1880s. The family story was that he was part of the hunt for Jack The Ripper. I suspect that might be a bit of a family yarn!

Standing to be your Police and Crime Commissioner on May 6th is an opportunity for me to continue serve the communities of Leicester, Leicestershire, and Rutland, and something I hope my ancestor would be proud of.

#cuttingcrimenotservices

#leicester #leicestershire #rutland

Ross Willmott for Police & Crime Commissioner

28th February, 2020

Labour Wins in Blaby

28th February, 2020

Very happy to help in the the Blaby District Council and Braunstone Town Council by-elections. Which saw our two Labour Candidates Leanne Marie Lee and Nick Brown elected. A great boost to the campaign to elect a Labour Police and Crime Commissioner.

Ross selected as Labour Candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner

24th October, 2019

I would like to thank all the Labour Party members for selecting me to be their candidate for Police and Crime Commissioner in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

I have already started campaigning and many thanks for all the invitations to attend events, keep them coming.

It was great to be with Stuart Brady Labour PPC for Loughborough and Emily Thornberry MP Shadow Foreign Secretary in Loughborough campaigning for a Labour Government that we all need so much.

It was good to meet old friends including Jenny Lewis, Jim Roberts, and to thank my supporters throughout the selection campaign.

Vote Ross Willmott for Police and Crime Commissioner

31st July, 2019

Update on Youth service cuts

25th October, 2017

Disappointingly the Labour Group voted by a majority not to have any debate at the full council meeting on the cuts to the youth service.

Five of us had signed a ‘call in’ notice that meant the decision to cut the service by more than half was put on hold until it went to the Council meeting on the 5th October. I proposed that two years funding for the service should come from the £7.4m underspend that the council is sitting on. This money still remains unallocated and despite being asked several times, in public, the Mayor has refused to give details of what it will be spent on. Two years funding would safeguard the service at it’s current level until the next elections.

I would like to thank the large number of councillors and Party members who supported the proposal and have spoken out against the cuts.

It remains clear that these cuts remain unnecessary when the council has £7.4 milllion unspent in it’s back pocket.

I am sure the debate on this will continue.

Why the youth service should not be cut

6th September, 2017

The city mayor is proposing to cut the youth service in half by removing £923,000 of its budget. This will mean the loss of 20-30 highly experienced youth workers, the reduction of youth work session from 42 to 12 per week and one-to-one street work. Thousands of children could end up with nowhere to go. This is at a time when the number of young people in the city is growing.

£7.4million underspend

It is not necessary to save this money to balance the budget as has been claimed. The council underspent by £7.4 million last year. This is not a one off underspend. Every year for the past six years there has been an underspend of a similar amount. Something that happens every year for six years is by definition ‘not one off’. This is £30 million of cuts that the council did not need to make.

I have asked officers of the Council for a list of what the £7.4million is to be spent on. You would think that if it was so necessary to cut the youth service by nearly £1million to fund something else they would know what? Well the answer was “we don’t know yet”. Why are we being asked to support cuts to the youth service when we don’t even know what the saving will be spent on? This is clearly not right.

The city mayor is also proposing cuts in other areas: to voluntary groups, libraries, and the welfare rights advice service all of which might not be necessary if we put this £7.4million back into the budget.

Concern amongst Party members

Many Party members are concerned about this and some have written to the Mercury about this.

I think it’s time for a rethink. Why are we spending £1.3m on the disastrous new pavements in Belvoir Street when this money could be used to protect our youth service, our welfare rights service and our libraries?

Letter published in Mercury 2nd September

Dear Editor

We, as members of the Labour Party across Leicester, and in some cases elected officers, are writing to congratulate the five Labour councillors who have objected to the proposal to cut funding to youth services in Leicester by half, with the loss of over 20 staff.

The youth service is really important for our city. It supports young people in every community to achieve their best in life. Cutting youth work sessions down from 42 to 12 per week, and one-to-one street work, means that thousands of young people will have nowhere to go.

At the same time the Council is putting an underspend of £7.4 million in a pot to spend on things that are not even yet decided.

We believe this underspend should be used to protect and improve our youth service and benefit thousands of young people every year.

It was claimed on BBC East Midlands News that some of this £7.4million will help to create jobs. But this amounts to removing 20 to 30 highly experienced and trained youth workers just on the promise that some of this money can be used to create some more jobs somewhere else, yet to be decided. This makes no sense at all.

We think this is wrong, and ask the City Mayor to take another look at these proposals. For the last six years the council has underspent by £35 million and we think it’s time that we invested more in our children.

The Mayor and some of his councillors have recently signed an Open Letter calling for a national campaign against the Tory government’s cuts to local government. Is it now not time to transfer that fighting spirit from petitions to action?

Yours sincerely,

Andy Wynne, Harry Stannard, Sam Sharmann-Dunn, Chris Willars, Jacqui Nangreve, Gary O’Donnell, Mandy Graham, Peter Flack, Geoff Field, Kevin Sherriff, Debbie Field, Stephen Foster, Andrea Burford, David Cross, Liz Warren