New police chief raises share of council tax (From Bucks Free Press)
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New police chief raises share of council tax
6:00pm Monday 4th February 2013 in News By James Nadal
New police chief raises share of council tax
THAMES Valley's new elected police chief has decided to raise council tax in order to recruit more officers.
In a move out of line with the major councils in Bucks, which are all set to freeze their portion of the tax, Anthony Stansfeld has decided to up the rate from April.
It means the average Band D household will pay £3.08 a year extra.
Mr Stansfeld, who won the vote to become Thames Valley Police's first ever Police and Crime Commissioner in November, said the additional cash will be used to recruit an extra nine officers and redeploy 34 others to key roles in policing and child protection.
He said: "This increase is less than a pint of beer for a Band D household or less than a penny a day but it allows us to keep our frontline secure by not just maintaining police numbers but actually increasing them."
The force has had to make £70m savings over six years starting in 2011/12, due to Government cuts, with cash savings of £13.5 million already identified for 2013/14.
The tax rise is arguably the biggest decision Mr Stansfeld, elected to the £85,000 per year role as the Conservative party's candidate, has had to make so far since coming to office.
He has also recently launched a new plan to tackle crime in the area and appointed a deputy - former Wycombe District Council Deputy Leader Cllr David Carroll - who will earn £35,000 for the part time position.
Mr Stansfeld is also responsible for a new Community Safety Fund which brings together a number of different drug intervention, crime reduction and community safety programmes that the Home Office previously provided directly to other authorities.
Despite cuts of 16 per cent in the grant for this area Mr Stansfeld has pledged to try to maintain the current £3.5m level.
He said: "This is crucial to reducing crime as it will allow groups which have received Home Office funding before such as Community Safety Partnerships, drug intervention programmes and organisations tackling gang and youth violence to continue."
Chief Constable Sara Thornton said: "I am pleased that the Police and Crime Commissioner has supported the force by proposing a modest rise in the precept. This will enable us to increase the number of officers on local patrol teams and to increase the strength in our child protection units."
Comments(18)
nannymcd
says...
6:42pm Mon 4 Feb 13
yog
says...
6:47pm Mon 4 Feb 13
Same old Tories.
5 is too many
says...
7:01pm Mon 4 Feb 13
handsworth
says...
7:51pm Mon 4 Feb 13
demoness the second
says...
9:04pm Mon 4 Feb 13
How does the police chief have the authority and autonomy to make the decision to raise council tax?
Why is this not a council decision?
Or am I missing something?
wiseman1
says...
11:17pm Mon 4 Feb 13
realist_highwycombe
says...
12:08am Tue 5 Feb 13
5 is too many wrote:Hopefully you are not referring to the salaries of the actual police officers on the ground being inflated - I think they deserve every penny for it.
Maybe if we didn't have to pay for such inflated salaries our taxes wouldn't need to go up?! I know it's not a lot of money but every penny is accounted for in our household where both parents work full time. Why don't TVP employ cheaper clerks like the met do to complete their paperwork, allowing police officers to do the job they are employed to do and be a more visible presence on the streets?
On the other hand £85,000 a year for this chap is quite frankly, silly.
I fully agree with you in relation to TVP needing to employ more members of civilian staff to complete the reams of paperwork the officers have to complete.
Civilians can be employed for a fraction of the cost and can be worth their weight in gold in allowing police officers to get straight back out on the streets doing what the public want them to do - nicking people!!
5 is too many
says...
12:25am Tue 5 Feb 13
RenegadeJ007
says...
1:00am Tue 5 Feb 13
Voyeur
says...
1:02am Tue 5 Feb 13
s6blr
says...
8:40am Tue 5 Feb 13
Sack the bar steward -- I didn't vote for him and I refuse to pay taxes not voted on by council.
stir up
says...
10:12am Tue 5 Feb 13
tigeran
says...
9:52pm Tue 5 Feb 13
s6blr wrote:They are not paying for nothing!! They are paying tax to keep the people that rob them!! You can bet these criminals are on benefits, they dont work so what else would they be on?!!
I am ABSOLUTELY SURE that residents recently burgled in Marlow, Bourne End, Flackwell Heath, Penn and High Wycombe will take HUGE PLEASURE in paying more for NOTHING.
Sack the bar steward -- I didn't vote for him and I refuse to pay taxes not voted on by council.
tigeran
says...
9:53pm Tue 5 Feb 13
s6blr wrote:They are not paying for nothing!! They are paying tax to keep the people that rob them!! You can bet these criminals are on benefits, they dont work so what else would they be on?!!
I am ABSOLUTELY SURE that residents recently burgled in Marlow, Bourne End, Flackwell Heath, Penn and High Wycombe will take HUGE PLEASURE in paying more for NOTHING.
Sack the bar steward -- I didn't vote for him and I refuse to pay taxes not voted on by council.
Dr James
says...
12:40pm Wed 6 Feb 13
demoness the second wrote:Your absolutley right, who the hell gave authority to raise the Council Tax to the police chief ...WTF, this is all wrong............how did that happen....? surely not
I must be reading this wrong.. so please bear with me. How does the police chief have the authority and autonomy to make the decision to raise council tax? Why is this not a council decision? Or am I missing something?
Kiwipuss
says...
5:27pm Mon 18 Feb 13
Will we all see any increase in Police patrols in any area, (Stokenchurch for one) all we see is the Community Police who have no powers of arrest, (And that's every now and again.)
Kiwipuss
says...
5:31pm Mon 18 Feb 13
and see what jumps out the wood work?
Kwak1100 says...
6:35pm Mon 4 Feb 13