Police officers on the beat in Norfolk.
Norfolk Police Authority agree to raise council tax by 3pc to help maintain Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in Norwich and across county
By PETER WALSH
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
11:35 AM
Norfolk Police Authority has rejected the offer of a “one-off” £1.7m grant from the government and agreed to raise its share of the precept in a bid to help maintain the numbers of police community support officers (PCSOs).
Members yesterday agreed a revenue budget of £145.87m for policing in Norfolk in 2012-13, with the authority approving a council tax precept increase of 3pc for the police’s part of the council tax, despite the offer of the government grant if it froze council tax.
The move, which means a band D taxpayer will pay £196.92 – a rise of 11p per week, means PCSO numbers can be maintained at 260 to ensure vital work which is helping to drive down anti-social behaviour in Norfolk as part of the Safer Schools Partnership (SSP) can continue.
It is a decision which also means police officer strength can be retained at the planned March 2012 position of 1,530 for the next financial year, although it is likely that figure could reduce to 1,500 after 2013.
Phil Gormley, Norfolk’s chief constable said he was “delighted” with the difficult decision to agree a “modest” rise in council tax which he said would allow the force to ensure the “excellent” work being done in and around schools and anti-social behaviour could be “preserved”.
He added: “My aim is to protect the number of officers and PCSOs in our safer neighbourhood teams to keep Norfolk people safe. A one-off grant does not allow me to do that as people cost money over the longer-term, ie, they are a recurring cost.
“I made it clear to members that I would be able to better protect some of the initiatives that they most value, including our work in schools and with vulnerable people, if they decided to increase the precept.”
He added: “I’m very proud of what the constabulary has done and this will allow us to continue to deliver the level of service that people here in Norfolk have a right to expect from the constabulary.”
With the 3pc increase having now been approved, Norfolk police, which had been tasked with making £24.5m of savings by 2015, is looking at plugging a funding gap of £20.5m over the next four years.
Speaking after yesterday’s meeting, Stephen Bett, police authority chairman, said the wide consultation carried out prior to the meeting returned overwhelming support from the county to increase the precept.
He said: “The authority has worked tirelessly over recent years to improve policing in Norfolk and it has done this with considerable success – performance has turned around, we are the safest county in England and, compared to some other forces, we are in a position of relative strength.
“Today’s decision will help us to preserve frontline policing in the face of massive public spending cuts – a position that we could not have envisaged but one that our foresight is now assisting us to hedge to the advantage of Norfolk people.”
Mr Bett said it would have been “unfair” of the authority, which also rejected a third option to increase council tax by 3.77pc, to both the people of Norfolk and the police, not to have agreed the 3pc increase.
All but one member of the authority agreed to the 3pc increase. Paul Wells, a Conservative county councillor for Bowthorpe voted to accept the government’s “one-off” grant as he did not feel comfortable in agreeing an increase, no matter how modest, at a time when people’s purses were being “pulverised”.
peter.walsh@archant.co.uk
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6 comments
What utter rubbish in these comments. If you are going to make comments, try getting your facts straight. Firstly, PCSOs are not 8 till 5. We work similar shift patterns to Police Officers, covering 7am until midnight, 7 days a week. We don't get paid overtime or paid meal breaks, if I'm late off because of an incident you just accept it as part of the job. I don't have a gold-plated pension and I wont retire at 50. As for PCSOs never solving crimes, understand one thing. The way that the Home Office records "detections" is that the detection goes to the last Officer dealing. So when I carry out enquiries, take statements etc and identify an offender (ie investigate a crime) or as I have done on many occasions detained offenders at the scene because I get there before the Police Officers do, the "tick in the box" goes to the Police Officer making the subsequent arrest, not me or any PC involved elsewhere. So the HO Counting rules cannot be used to base you ill-informed comments on. As for earlier comments re doing nothing but attend meetings, if only! Yes PCSOs attend community engagement meetings but in one month of duties I will spend less than 2 hr total at meetings. The rest of the time I am carrying out beat patrols over a massive area, investigating low-level crime offences (not the stuff that makes the papers but the stuff that matters to the locals), dealing with anti-social behaviour, street drinking, possession of drugs, assisting at Road Traffic Accidents, searching for (and often finding) missing persons, sorting out neighbour disputes and bullying children and supporting my Police Officer colleagues. PCSOs are not admin staff, they dont spend their days shuffling paper in the station, anymore than a Police Officer does. I can accept accept some people dont like us, but then people like the posters on here are never happy with anything and have nothing better to do than spend their days writing vitriolic comments about things they really know nothing about. And you say we are a waste of time and money!
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redcap
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Instead of the current informality in sharing services between forces the time is now ripe for planned force mergers. This would save significant amounts of money savings on things like staffing, equipment and estate costs. Chief Constables are entering into cross border arrangements for all the right reasons; but without the mandate of the people they serve and who in the end foot the bill.
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BG
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
Shocking. They need to work it out without charging us more. Any good manager could do it.
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Johnny Norfolk
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
i agree with last poster. cut their overtime and get rid of those fake coppers who just walk in and out of shops at random.bet they retire at 50 as well.
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bookworm
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
i agree with last poster. cut their overtime and get rid of those fake coppers who just walk in and out of shops at random.bet they retire at 50 as well.
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bookworm
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
How else do you you expect the poor souls to fund gold-plated pensions,early retirement and long term absenteeism?
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Dick Turnip
Wednesday, February 22, 2012