Police charge rise to protect ‘thin blue line’
TAXPAYERS could be facing an inflationbusting hike in police charges in order to protect our ‘thin blue line’.
Police Commissioner Clive Grunshaw wants people to support a rise of up to 13 per cent in Lancashire Police’s council tax precept, saying they will be unable to fund new officers without a large rise.
The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has proposed three potential increases in the police precept – the equivalent of 6p, 23p and 40p a week for ‘average’ Band D homes.
For the majority of Hyndburn residents in Band A, the hikes would add £2.07, £7.96 or £13.86 to annual council tax bills.
The Police Commissioner said the largest rise would generate £8.8m for investment in frontline policing and is equivalent to 173 police officer roles.
The 23p per week rise would raise £5.1m to invest in community policing and the contact management centre to improve call handling.
Mr Grunshaw said the proposed drastic rises were a result of government cuts.
He said: “In their announcement before Christmas, they highlighted the need to invest in policing after years of cuts to local budgets, but are passing the buck on to local residents.
“With rising demands on the service, increasing costs through inflation and growing online threats we cannot accept a further reduction in our police budget.”
He added: “Across the county residents tell me that they want to see better investment in policing.
“This would protect officer and staff roles that would otherwise be lost and allow us to invest in a better policing service, fit for the future.”
Hyndburn MP Graham Jones said he backed the proposals to hike charges as ‘the only option’.
Mr Jones said: “The Tory government has cut 21,000 police officers and crime is starting to rise.
“The PCC is right to raise concerns with the government, but it is not listening. His only option is raise local police proportion of the council tax and I back that.”
Conservative group leader Tony Dobson, who favours a 23p rise, said that taxpayers would end up paying one way or another if the number of police officers are to be increased. He said: “There is only person who is paying, and that is us, the taxpayer. If the 23p does what he says it’s going to do then we should have substantial improvements in policing in Hyndburn, but we need to see that value for money.”