Would you pay an extra one pound per month to maintain local policing?

Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Wiltshire and Swindon, Angus Macpherson, is asking members of the public for their feedback on a proposed £1 per month increase to maintain local policing.

The policing precept, which is collected with your council tax, goes directly to the PCC where 98% is allocated to Wiltshire Police’s Chief Constable and the remaining 2% to the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner (OPCC) for commissioned services such as Horizon Victim Support and Restorative Together.

PCC Angus Macpherson, said, “Currently, each Band D property pays £206 per year or £17 per month, towards policing services. This year, in order to maintain this, I believe, at a minimum, I need to increase the cost per month by £1. This would leave the average family paying £218 per year.

“Last year, with your support, I promised to recruit 41 more officers and 2 dedicated cyber-crime staff.

“I have recruited these officers; they are now in training and will be joining your community policing teams soon. Our capacity to deal with digital investigations has also increased, and in line with global trends, will need to continue to do so in the future.

“On average at present, it takes around three years to recruit, train and post new officers and we doubled the number of trainees in last October’s intake to accommodate the additional officers I promised.

“The Government’s commitment to recruit an additional 20,000 officers provides an excellent opportunity to strengthen the police nationally.

“In the first year, 6,000 additional officers will be recruited nationally and 49 of those will be in Wiltshire. I expect this to be fully funded by the Government. However, this is not a quick fix and we still need to make savings in other areas across the force to meet increased costs such as inflation, national pay awards and increased demand.

“In order to maintain services at their current level, I need to protect both officer and staff numbers. I can only do this if funding allows. With your support in this increase in council tax and the national increase in officers, we will increase officers from 979 to 1,028. It will also protect the 131 PCSOs and 991 staff members across the force.

“Under the current formula, we have the third lowest funding per head of population in England and Wales. For five years, I have pressed for a review and hope a strong Government will now address this inequality.

“I am still waiting to hear from the Home Office on the detail of our settlement for the next financial year, but in the meantime, I want to hear your views on my proposed increase. You can do this by visiting my website or my social media pages”.

The consultation will run until mid day on Friday 31st January. To share your views visit the survey online: www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/8NQQJFW  or visit the website: www.wiltshire-pcc.gov.uk, Facebook or Twitter.