Beds, Herts and Cambs

[Christel]

Just heard that Bedfordshire, Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire have merged.

That is quite a big area to manage...

[20series]

Yeh it will be interesting to see if the excellent service I've had from Cambs changes

Alan

[TomH]

Yeh it will be interesting to see if the excellent service I've had from Cambs changes

Alan

Ditto. How good were Beds and Herts?

[ovenpaa]

Beds were extremely good before the merged with Herts, then they skipped a few beats however they were slowly getting back on track.

[Mattnall]

Beds were extremely good before the merged with Herts, then they skipped a few beats however they were slowly getting back on track.

Herts were also very good and then the merger came along.

However, it would appear that the transition from being individual counties to the group took a few months but now they are very good (at least have been in my neck of the E Harts).

I have had a few customers that had trouble with Cambs. firearms, but then I only get to hear one side of the problem.

[toffe wrapper]

Been waiting for it to happen for a while.
One of the Cambs people attended a guest at the club they were positive and said all should get a good service.
Beds & Herts joining worked.

The only issue I know of across all 3 is people not providing good reason for what they want or being able to demonstrate use.
Which cause rejections & refusals.

[ovenpaa]

Given the logistics of joining two existing departments to a third there are bound to be hiccups however it does mean three regions will be singing off the same page now, lets cross our fingers that it is one that works for the shooting community as well. Sadly it will almost certainly mean redundancies as it is part of a cost saving exercise and some of the Beds and Herts types I have dealt with in the past were super people.

[Iain]

Submitted my variation to Cambs on 15th Dec.....arrived last Monday (25th).

This is the longest I've had to wait for anything from Cambs and it may have something to do with the merger. Speaking with my local (Cambs) FEO, he told me that they had to put a lot of stuff on hold whilst they helped with a massive backlog from Beds & Herts. I don't know how true it is as I'm only going by what he told me and I have no way of verifying it so please don't shoot the messenger (sic)

At least we aren't as bad as Lincs. A Rookie in our Club who falls within the clutches of the single figure IQ that organises (?) the Lincs Firearms Dept, submitted his application on Sep 15th 2015. He's still waiting with not so much as a 'Kiss our spotty bottoms' from G4S.

BTW, is there any truth in the nasty rumour that the Husband of that bastion and vociferous supporter of British Shooter's rights, Mrs Teresa May is, in actual fact, one of the major executives in aforementioned G4S?

Iain

[Pinguino]

I'm in Herts. FEO spoke to me just before Xmas and told me it was happening on 4th Jan. Said there were going to be fewer FEOs after merger. Herts have a great record. End of last year chart showed Herts 2nd best in country while Cams were 7th best - for Sec 1 grant/renewal

[Mattnall]

Beds/Herts - I put my FAC/SGC in for renewal in July for a December expiry date after a word from our local FEO (a nice guy called Clive - E Herts). It came back within 2 weeks, so I had 2 FAC/SGCs for nearly half of last year - one about to expire and one about to begin. Not sure where the backlog is/was but it's not in the renewal department.

There are 4 FAC/SGC holders in our household, with 5 FACs between us (and 3 SGCs and 1 RFD). We have never had any problem from Herts, nor Beds and Herts. I hope this good service may continue with the Beds/Herts/Cambs firearms department, or have they created a Frankenstein Monster of a department?