North Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Julia Mulligan, is asking for residents to give her their views on how much they think they should pay towards policing next year.
- 55 per cent of North Yorkshire Police’s funding comes from the Government
- 45 per cent is raised locally and is paid for by residents through their council tax
It is this local funding – called the ‘police precept’ – that Julia wants residents’ views on.
Residents can fill out the very short survey on the Commissioner’s website – http://www.northyorkshire-pcc.gov.uk/precept/
Commenting on the consultation, on police funding generally, Julia Mulligan said:
North Yorkshire is the safest place in England and our police do a good job. But like everywhere, we have our challenges. Whilst I very much welcome the Government’s recent decision to save policing generally from future budget cuts, as spending on national priorities increases there is now less money available for local policing.
The government has included a precept rise in all their calculations, which means freezing the precept would make it harder to deliver policing services and balance the books.
But most importantly, given recent funding announcements, I want to know what residents think – whether they want to freeze local funding or increase it. Please let me know your view before the 12th of January by completing the very sort survey on my website.
The Government has recently announced that ‘policing as a whole’ would be protected from any funding reductions. This has been welcomed by Julia Mulligan, but it does not mean local policing does not have to find additional savings over the next four years. The ‘policing family’ includes Counter-Terrorism for example, and with spending on that particular area of policing increasing, it means local policing continues to need to save money. The savings however are lower than would otherwise be the case should spending reductions have been imposed more fully.
Also within the Government’s plans is an expected 2% rise in the local policing tax. This is very important because it means that any policing area which decides to freeze the local policing tax will in reality have its funding cut.
Julia Mulligan has also produced a leaflet explaining the decisions available to residents and informing them how they can let Julia know their views. The deadline for comments is 12th January 2015.
The options people can choose from are:
- Freeze the precept. Meaning no more to pay locally, but harder for the police to deliver services and balance the books.
- Increase the precept by 1.99 per cent in order to raise just over £1.2 million for next year and subsequent years, but avoid a costly local referendum. This will cost the average household an 8p extra a week.
- Put the precept up by more than 1.99 per cent which could raise more money, but will mean at least £700,000 spent on a referendum on the proposals.
To make your choice heard, complete the online questionnaire on our website, at http://www.northyorkshire-pcc.gov.uk/precept/ where you can also find out more the police precept and download a leaflet and questionnaire.
You can also have your say by:
- Calling: 01423 569 562
- Emailing: pcc@northyorkshire-pcc.gov.uk or
- Writing to: FREEPOST RTCL-AGAE-TRTS, Police and Crime Commissioner for North Yorkshire, 12 Granby Road, Harrogate, HG1 4ST.
