Cambridgeshire Police Authority have announced that they will be looking at the possibility of raising the policing element of local taxes by around 28% in the next financial year in order to preserve front line policing and officer numbers in the county.

It is proposing that it requires this level of taxation, the equivalent of £26.50 a year extra for a Band D tax payer, to keep services going without having to go to the drastic lengths of reducing officer numbers - something the Authority is determined it does not want to do. Why is the Authority faced with having to make this recommendation?

Historically Cambridgeshire Police Authority has received very low funding from the Government and over the last few years the Authority has had to look to the local taxpayers to provide the Authority with the funds it needs to maintain services in the county.

In December 2002 the Home Office announced that for 2003/04 Cambridgeshire Police Authority would receive a police grant totalling £71.1m, a rise of 4.9% (£3.4m) from this financial year. This gives the Authority a total budget of £94.5m based on the levels of local taxation remaining at the current levels (i.e, a 0% increase this year).

John Reynolds, Chairman of Cambridgeshire Police Authority said: " At first glance this would seem to be a positive settlement for us, in fact it was a higher settlement than we had anticipated. However we are still feeling the after effects of those years of under funding and a closer look at our budget reveals that even this rise is not enough to enable us to move forward this year.

"We also know that if the Home Office had not put a ceiling on the amount of grant they were awarding this year that Cambridgeshire would have in fact received a rise of 8.2% rather than 4.9% - this is equal to an extra £2.3m which would have been a much fairer settlement."

As well as losing out on this capped money, Cambridgeshire Police Authority knows that there are a number of significant additional costs that it has to meet this year over and above last years costs - many of which have been set by Government. These include: Police and support staff pay rises (set nationally), New competency, priority and bonus payments (set nationally), Increased National Insurance contributions (set nationally), Increased pension requirements General goods and services inflation.

John Reynolds said: "These increases, which we cannot avoid, will cost us over £4million extra in the next financial year. This is over half a million pounds more than we have received in the grant , so it becomes obvious that we are already on the back foot and this is before operational issues are even taken into account."

The Authority also needs to consider operational funding pressures that the Force faces, including the ongoing costs of Operation Fincham and public order policing, meaning that just to keep policing services standing still in Cambridgeshire there is the need for an additional £10m.

Cambridgeshire Police Authority does not want to burden the County's taxpayers with meeting this entire short fall in funding, therefore it has worked closely with the Force to identify around £3.4m of possible further reductions to current expenditure.

John Reynolds said: "The only way we can reduce the short fall between what we need to maintain levels of service and what the Government says we should be spending is to reduce the amount we have to spend on the services we already provide. We have identified a number of areas where reductions in current expenditure are possible without reducing front line policing numbers. These include: A reduction in police overtime funds Deferring a project to modernise custody suites in the county Reducing the amount of contingency funds held for policing public order demonstrations and ongoing major criminal investigations Deferral of vehicle replacement A reduction in Police Authority expenditure A reduction in funds available for partnership initiatives Making reductions to the support staff budget Force wide

John Reynolds said: "People should not underestimate how difficult it has been to identify these reductions in expenditure. They will all have some affect on the Force's ability to maintain the service levels that they currently provide for the people of Cambridgeshire. Many of the reductions that have been agreed upon also bring an element of risk into the budget - risk that if there is another major incident there may not be the funds available to pay for it.

"If the Authority were to look at how it could make further reductions to expenditure, it would be in the realms of having to make cuts that would have very serious effects on the ability of the Force to police the area - such as reductions to officer numbers."

These reductions leave the Authority with having an available budget of £94.5m to fund a requirement of £100.9m which equals a £6.5m short fall that the Authority proposes will need to be met by taxpayers through the local precept.

To meet this would require a 28% rise in precept on 2002/03 which is around £26.50 a year for the average Band D property.

"This certainly isn't positive news. Last year the Authority was able to tell people that it would receive additional services for the 39% precept increase, but this year the facts are that the 28% increase in precept is just to maintain services with no extras, in fact with some reductions.

"It is also worth noting that if we had received the full allocation that Government had assessed that Cambridgeshire required (8.2% increase), this precept rise would have been 10% lower." Further issues to consider

The Authority also wants to make the public aware of a further potential issue that they are having to consider - that of replenishing the funds used during Operation Fincham (Soham) and for policing animal rights protests in the county.

In November the Police Authority and Constabulary made a joint bid to the Home Office to cover the costs of these extraordinary operations, which cost around £6m (£5m for Operation Fincham, £1m for Animal Rights). The Authority still awaits a response from the Home Office with regards to these bids, however, the full cost has had to be met through the current available budget. This was done by making savings in year and calling on general and earmarked reserves.

The Authority has been receiving pressure from the Government to ensure that all of its reserve balances are maintained in case of further major incidents, however, the Authority will struggle to do this unless its claim to the Home Office gets a positive response.

If the Authority has to recover the whole of its reserves, requiring an additional £6.5m, through local taxation, this would need a further 28% precept increase. This means a potential 56% total precept increase - around £53 a year for Band D taxpayers.

John Reynolds said: " We still have not heard from the Home Office with regards to our claims but we do expect full recompense for these additional and exceptional costs and therefore it is essential that we get an answer by the end of January so we know whether we are going to have to levy additional tax to cover these costs.

"If we do not get a response the Police Authority will have to make a decision about whether to risk running with virtually no reserve funds." Consultation on proposal

Cambridgeshire Police Authority wants to hear the views of local residents with regards to the proposals that it is putting forward by asking them to answer the following question by choosing the answer that they agree with. Question

Do you support the Cambridgeshire Police Authority's proposal to increaselocal taxation by 28% in order to preserve front line policing in Cambridgeshire? Answer
YES i)I support the 28% precept increase ii) I would support a higher precept
NO - If no, please suggest how the Authority could make further reductions to service.

People can answer this question by sending their response in writing to Clerk of Cambridgeshire Police Authority, Jubilee House, Falconers Chase, Wymondham, NR18 0WW

Also, in the coming days the consultation will be available on-line at the Authority's web site - www.cambs-pa.gov.uk, and it will also be available in leaflet form from local libraries.

The final decision on the level of precept will be made by the Authority in early February so all responses must reach us by the end of January.

"A balance between what the Constabulary required and what the public of Cambridgeshire were prepared to pay."

That is how Cambridgeshire Police Authority are describing their decision to increase the policing element of local taxation by 19.8%, which was made at a meeting held at Police Headquarters, Huntingdon, yesterday evening.

This final decision by the Authority means that Band D Council Tax payers can expect to pay an additional 36p a week / £18.72p a year towards the policing element of their Council Tax bill. This rise provides a total policing budget for 2003/04 of just over £99m an additional £7.1m for the Constabulary compared with 2002/03.

John Reynolds, Chairman of Cambridgeshire Police Authority said: "We know that this is a substantial rise for taxpayers to maintain current police officer numbers, especially as there will be no extra police officers. However, we have listened to local people who told us throughout our consultation campaign that they didn't want to pay the 28% increase that we had proposed and we have done all we can to reduce the precept to this lower amount."

What will the additional 19.8% pay for?

The Authority has had to allow for an increase in its basic costs compared to the current financial year, most of which are due to Government enforced changes, for example:

• Police Officer and Support staff pay rises
• Police Reform Act Costs - including police officer special payments as agreed during the national pay review
• Rise in police pension costs
• Increase to National Insurance contributions
• General inflation on goods and services

An important addition to the budget this year is an Innovation fund of £0.5m. This will allow the Constabulary to apply for Government funding in situations where Government only part fund an initiative, e.g, Community Support Officers, the fund being available to meet the balance of the cost.

The proposed budget will also provide funding for some new and very important developments, e.g,

• Improvement in the Constabulary's call handling capability
• Digital photography facilities to improve and aid the Constabulary's forensic capabilities
• Purchase and development of various IT packages that will have a big impact on the Constabulary's crime fighting / detection capabilities such as intelligence gathering and sharing packages and scenes of crime technology.

John Reynolds said: "Each of these items is very important in ensuring that the Constabulary is able to meet Government standards in much of its work and importantly to enable it to share information with other forces, creating a greater chance of catching criminals in the County.

"We know that for each item we have been able to provide for there are many other important ones that we have not been able to offer the funding for. However, we have worked with the Constabulary to ensure that the most important items are provided for."

The agreed budget also provides £1.1m which is to be spent under the direction of the Chief Constable, in consultation with the Authority. This portion of the budget gives the Chief Constable the opportunity to decide where he most needs these resources to be used. For example he may choose to introduce new roles or equipment, or may decide not to go ahead with all of the reductions to expenditure that had been examined previously.(*1)

John Reynolds said: "The Authority felt it was very important to give the Chief Constable a degree of flexibility over how some of the agreed budget would be spent. This was agreed in recognition that the Chief Constable can use his operational position to decide how those funds could be best spent to the benefit of the policing service in Cambridgeshire." (*2)

Funds have also been set aside in this budget to deal with the ongoing costs of Operation Fincham (Soham) and policing animal rights protests in the County.

Although resources will be very tight in the coming year the Authority believes that with the continued commitment of the Constabulary and its staff, policing in Cambridgeshire can continue to a high standard.

John Reynolds said: "We know that this is a substantial rise in taxation for local residents to bear, but we hope people can see that we really have done everything possible to reduce the burden on the taxpayer.

"Our demands for further funding from the Home Office were listened to for the first time this year - but it will take a while before the years of underfunding are balanced out and we have policing levels equal to other forces. It is also worth remembering that if the Government had not set a ceiling on the police grant and we had received our full allocation of funding we would have only been asking for just over 10%.

"We will keep pushing for better funding for Cambridgeshire and hope residents of the County will join us in that."

Notes:
*1 - During the budget setting process the Authority and Constabulary have explored the possibility of reducing expenditure in some areas as below,

• Police overtime costs
• Partnership funding costs
• Support staff costs

*2 - A decision on exactly what this £1.1m will be spent on has not been made at this stage but will be for the Chief Constable, in consultation with the Authority, to decide over the coming weeks.

This year for the first time the Authority has agreed to take up its borrowing allowance as part of the budget.

The policing element of local taxation, the precept, is only around 10% of the total local taxation bill that local residents will pay. These costs come into effect from April 1st. All Cambridgeshire and Peterborough residents will receive a bill detailing what property band their property comes under and exactly what they will have to pay.

Band D is used as an example.