“To keep people safe ultimately we need more money”

POLICING in Essex needs investment to increase officer numbers and keep people safe.

Steve Taylor, Essex Federation Chairman, said it was important Police and Crime Commissioners could raise the council tax precept – as Essex’s Roger Hirst wants to, to properly fund policing. According to the latest Government figures, there are 787 fewer police officers in Essex than there were in 2010.

Steve said: “Essex is the cheapest police force in the country, when you combine our national and local grant and you take the City of London out of it, and the people of Essex deserve a fairer funding formula.

“For the Government to reflect that in some of the changes, which we hope we will see, has got to be a positive thing. Because we are doing more with less.”

Police and Crime Commissioners were limited to a maximum annual increase of £5 for a Band D home when setting precept levels.

However, today the government has announced this cap will rise to £12.

Mr Hirst recently held a survey asking Essex residents if they were prepared to pay more for policing – and 65% of 5,044 respondents said they would pay more if the cap was lifted.

Of those, three-quarters were prepared to pay £10 or more, while 16% said they would pay up to £5 more.

If the full rise is enacted, it would mean around £8.8million extra in Essex.

Steve said independent surveys in Essex have shown the force needs around 300 more officers to cope with current levels of demand.

He added: “As we go forward that figure grows to about 800 extra officers, such are the challenges that are on the horizon for us. And you can only get that through funding us properly.

“We’re doing all that we can to be lean and efficient as possible. We’re selling as much of the family silver as we can. We only have to look around at the estate, police stations are up for sale everywhere, vehicles are being modified. But ultimately we need more money. From the bottom up we need investment, and that can only come from the Government or a relaxing of the funding formula locally.”