HOUSEHOLDS ASKED TO PAY MORE FOR POLICING

COUNCIL tax payers in Devon and Cornwall are being asked for an inflation-busting extra payment towards policing which will fund extra officers and strengthen the response to violent and sexual crime.

The latest crime figures for the year to September 2020 showed the Devon and Cornwall force area had the second lowest overall crime rate in England and Wales, but was the ninth lowest for violent crime.

Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez said her budget for the next financial year from April included 232 new front line staff and would see the number of police officers return to the level at the start of the Government’s austerity cuts a decade ago.

Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Panel, made up of councillors from across the region, voted to approve the budget at a meeting on Friday. The spending plan was the last from the Conservative commissioner ahead of an election for the role due to take place in May.

Councillors also backed extra recommendations outlined by Cllr Gareth Derrick, a member of the panel and the Labour PCC candidate, for the commissioner to consider how to tackle policing the summer surge of visitors, look into increasing the number of police community support officers, and continue to lobby for extra government funding. Cllr Derrick said he supported the investment in front line staff, but described the increase in council tax of more than a third during the commissioner’s five years in office as “another Conservative rip-off ”.

The meeting heard that the force will see an extra 141 officers recruited under the Government’s national programme. Another 40 officers will be funded by £551,000 from the council tax income, taking the total number in the Devon and Cornwall force to 3,422 by the end of the year, the highest for 10 years, and 3,610 by April 2023. The commissioner’s fiveyear plan until 2025 proposes keeping the number of PCSOs at 150.

The panel voted to approve the commissioner’s budget to raise almost £144million from council tax payers, out of total planned spending of £349million. That equals an annual bill for Band D of just under £237, up by £14.92 or 6.7per cent.

The Government annual target for inflation – the measure of the increase in the price of goods and services – is 2per cent, and the latest figures show the rate was 0.6per cent in December.

Police officers and civilian staff will have their pay frozen in September, following a 2.5per cent increase in the current year under a national pay settlement.

Chief constable Shaun Sawyer told the panel of his concerns that the pandemic was worsening inequalities, and said the force would work with local authorities “to stop the vulnerable falling through our safety nets”.

He said the budget measures would allow the force to be ready for the end of the pandemic restrictions when the night-time economy returned.

He said priorities included tackling violence against women and girls, county lines drug networks, online exploitation of children, and serious and organised crime including drug gangs.

He said: “I believe this is the time to invest in local policing, more than any other time.”