Police and Crime Panel members have approved plans to raise the amount of money households pay to fund Dorset\u2019s police service by \u00a32 a month.<\/p>\n
Martyn Underhill, Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Dorset, held a six week consultation into proposals to raise the precept \u2013 the part of a council tax bill which funds policing \u2013 by \u00a324 a year following on from the advice of the Home Secretary to raise the precept to the maximum permitted. <\/p>\n
Now, after just under 70% of those surveyed supported the idea, members of the Dorset Police and Crime Panel \u2013 which scrutinises the PCC \u2013 gave it their backing at Dorchester\u2019s County Hall on Thursday February 7. <\/p>\n
All 15 members of the 17-strong panel who were present during the meeting voted unanimously to approve the plans. Two members were not in attendance.<\/p>\n
Martyn Underhill said: \u201cI\u2019m extremely grateful to all of those people who took the time to respond to my survey, and to panel members for supporting the proposals. I\u2019m well aware that many households in the county are struggling financially, and the fact so many have said they would be prepared to pay this extra amount demonstrates how important an effective police service is to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
The results of the consultation were presented at the panel meeting. A total of 4,829 people responded \u2013 either online, via social media or face-to-face at a series of public events \u2013 with 69.31% saying they would be prepared to pay the additional amount. As well as consulting on the proposed precept increase, residents were also asked if they felt that Dorset Police needed more money. 85% agreed that it did. <\/p>\n
The enhancement will amount to \u00a37.8m in extra income for Dorset Police, going some way to offset cuts in central funding.<\/p>\n
The panel also heard how a \u00a31m Innovation Fund will be set up \u2013 funded by a combination of recurring efficiencies in the Force\u2019s budget and from a surplus of previously uncollected council tax receipts \u2013 which will pay for initiatives such as extra officers in the rural and marine crime units, improving road safety and providing more help to homeless people.<\/p>\n
Martyn Underhill said: \u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of conversations with Dorset residents over the last few weeks and something I\u2019ve heard time and time again is \u2018we shouldn\u2019t be paying for this \u2013 the government should!\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t agree more \u2013 central government have adopted a policy of public sector funding being devolved to local taxpayers for several years now, something I inherently disagree with, as over time, it disadvantages poorer communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis consultation was launched following real terms cuts of more than \u00a325m over the last eight years, while Dorset Police\u2019s budget has had to absorb growing inflation and an unfunded pay increase for officers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also seen a 10% increase in reported crime last year, a 9 % increase in the number of emergency calls, and we\u2019re seeing a huge rise in the number of serious sexual offences.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur financial troubles are far from over and I will continue to press the government for a fairer settlement in the new funding formula. However, with prudent saving we will now be able to invest more resources in areas of key concern, such as tackling County Lines drug gangs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re also going to introduce a volunteer cadet service to help young people play a role in their communities and create a Bobby Van scheme to help vulnerable and older people across the county.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today\u2019s meeting concludes the consultation process and the Commissioner\u2019s decision to raise the policing precept stands. The change will come into effect from 1 April 2019.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Police and Crime Panel members have approved plans to raise the amount of money households pay to fund Dorset\u2019s police service by \u00a32 a month. Martyn Underhill, Police and Crime…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bournemouth","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.bournemouthone.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}