Lincolnshire's recently-appointed Chief Constable has set out his strategic vision.

It is: "Working together to make Lincolnshire the safest place to live, work and visit."

The chief constable also detailed his three key areas of focus for the Force at a meeting yesterday.

They are stopping crime and Anti-social behaviour, protecting people from harm and helping those in need.

At the Public Assurance Meeting, Mr Haward, who took up the role of Chief Constable in late December, said: "Our aspiration is to take us from where we are now…to being the safest (county) to live, work and visit in the country.

"We'll be making sure that our communities are secure and that they feel the difference. It's about listening to them and understanding their diverse needs."

Mr Haward has spent time since being appointed as Chief Constable in communicating his strategic vision to all officers and staff at Lincolnshire police to ensure all members of the organisation know what is expected of them, and what they can expect of him.

"We have a workforce made up of incredibly hard-working people who come to work every day determined to do their best and help people," he said.

"They are doing a tremendous job and I am continually humbled by their efforts. My job is to ensure that they are physically and mentally well enough to do their job effectively, they have the right tools for the job, and that everything I do as a Chief Constable is about enabling them to police with vision and purpose in order to keep people safe in this county."

Mr Haward outlined his plans during a Public Assurance Meeting, which is one of the primary mechanisms by which PCC Marc Jones meets his statutory responsibility to hold the Chief Constable to account.

The meetings focus on the performance of Lincolnshire Police and provide assurance regarding the effectiveness and efficiency of policing services.

Members at the meeting heard how crime in Lincolnshire has reduced by 13% overall in the 12 month rolling period, but it is widely accepted that the Coronavirus lockdowns had a positive impact on the number of offences being committed. Work is being undertaken nationally to assess the best ways in which to measure performance.

Latest ONS figures released on February 3rd also show crime in Lincolnshire decreased by 8% in levels of all recorded crime to the end of September 2020, compared to an England and Wales average decrease of 7%.

Lincolnshire is ranked 15th in the country in terms of the lowest number of offences per 1000 residents.

Mr Haward said: "We know that the impact of Covid-19 has had an effect on our figures but we also know that we continue to see some offence types clearly showing positive reductions compared to the expected levels, such as burglary, theft offences, and vehicle crime.

"These are offences which can have a huge effect on how safe people feel in the areas where they live and we continue to work with our communities to develop and prioritise neighbourhood policing to ensure we are preventing crime and responding appropriately when it does happen." Some areas that were also highlighted during the meeting included: Call handling: Over the past 12 months the force has seen significant improvement in 101 call handling times due to a combination of adapting our approach to demand management, additional investment in call taker numbers and slightly reduced demand driven by Covid lockdowns. On average 94.8% of emergency calls a month are answered within 10 seconds with a 0.4% abandonment rate (last 12 months). This figure compares very well with most forces and is considerably above the national standard of 90%. For non-emergency calls, on average 64% of non-emergency calls a month are answered within 30 seconds with a 5.7% abandonment rate (last 12 months). The call handling position has shown an improvement with 92% of 101 calls being answered within 3 minutes in December 2020 (compared to 52% in July 2019). Road traffic collisions: The initial COVID-19 lockdown saw traffic on the County's roads reduce significantly, which reduced the number of those people seriously injured as a result of a road traffic collision. However, as traffic volume returned to 'normal' levels so has the number of those seriously injured. In the twelve months to end November 2020, 48 people have been killed which is a decrease of 9% on the previous 12 months (-5 fatalities). The number of those seriously injured has reduced by 24%, with 367 people seriously injured in the last 12 months, a reduction of 115. Mr Haward added: "It's encouraging to see the decrease in these numbers but I am not complacent about them because even one death on our roads is one too many. Behind all 48 of these tragic fatalities are 48 families or groups of loved ones who are bereaved. I am committed to focussing on our county's roads and doing all we can to reduce these numbers even further."

• To listen to the recording of the full PAM meeting go to: https://lincolnshire-pcc.gov.uk/transparency/public-assurance-meetings/

Please note that there is usually a small delay between the recording of the meeting, and its publication.