Lincolnshire Police and Crime Commissioner proposes 4.7 per cent tax increase

Marc Jones (Independent) told members of the Lincolnshire Police and Crime Panel that the police’s council tax precept needs to go up due to the financial pressures that the force is still facing.

The planned £14.94 increase for the next financial year would work out at £333.09 per year going to the police from the bill of a resident in an average band D property.

The police share of the council tax bill makes up 15 per cent of the total.

At a meeting on Friday, February 6, Mr Jones explained: “The first thing is that the cost of wages, which is set nationally by the government, continually goes up for police officers and staff so that has to be found from within our budget.

“Obviously, everybody who is paying their household bills is aware of gas, electricity, the cost of vehicles – everything has gone up.

“So really it’s keeping pace with inflation, but also wanting to provide additional police officers, which the public are saying that’s what they want. So, it’s listening and responding to the public need.”

The PCC went on to say that he has consulted with the public and most people who took part in the survey said they were willing to pay more for the police share of council tax if they got more police officers.

He added: “The first thing is that the cost of wages which is set nationally by the government continually goes up for police officers and staff so that has to be found from within our budget.

“Obviously, everybody who is paying their household bills is aware of gas, electricity, the cost of vehicles – everything has gone up.

“So really it’s keeping pace with inflation, but also wanting to provide additional police officers, which the public are saying that’s what they want, so it’s listening and responding to the public need.”

Councillors heard that 3,763 people took part in the consultation.

A total of 65 per cent of people said they were prepared to pay at least 4.4 per cent more if it meant they would get more police officers.

Members also heard that 75 per cent of people separately said they supported the police getting more funding.

Mr Jones told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that, while Lincolnshire Police has received an additional £12 million from the Government as part of an Exceptional Financial Support package, he still needed to increase council tax.

He said: “Quite honestly, I couldn’t have gone any higher without there being a referendum.

“What that would have meant is that there would have been an additional £12 million of cuts to services which would have been catastrophic to the service.

“A year ago in Lincolnshire, we were talking about losing 400 officers and staff – that emergency funding from the government, coupled with the council tax increase means we are no longer facing the loss of 400 people and in fact we will have a small amount of growth.

“So, more neighbourhood policing officers, people working in rural crime, on our roads to really just help keep our communities safer.

“So, it’s fended off a catastrophe but what it has done is just take us back to similar staffing levels to where we were a couple of years ago.”

Coun Stephen Woodliffe (Independent), who sits on Boston Borough Council, said he supported the proposed increase in council tax.

He said: “I don’t believe in low taxation. I believe in appropriate taxation.

“You pay for what you need and you pay for what you use. I think the problem we have in the country as a whole is that people want something for nothing.

“It’s a policy, which I think was developed by Mr (Tony) Blair really, which I think has carried on. We have to pay for what we use and the police force needs more money.

“We want more police officers. We know we need more police officers, so we have to pay more for it.”

But Spalding councillor Ingrid Sheard (Reform UK), who sits on Lincolnshire Council Council and South Holland District Council, said that she disagreed with the proposal.

Coun Sheard, who is also the deputy mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, said: “Being a district councillor and a county councillor on ground level and talking to people, they feel that what they currently get from the police is not adequate.

“They also feel that if they are going to be required to pay 4.7 per cent (more) they want to see something pretty immediately improve.

“They want to know how that’s going to be monitored, how it’s going to be shown as an improvement and how they are going to get value for money. “

Mr Jones replied: “People will always want more for more and I’m a taxpayer – I want more for more.

“If people are saying they’re not getting a good enough police service now, well you’re not going to get a better one if you don’t have the money to pay wages.

“That’s fundamentally the problem we have here. The service we’re going to get now is what will be there and get worse if we don’t have the money to obviously recruit.”

The proposal was supported by the majority of councillors and a final decision will be made over the next few weeks.