Essex Fed Chair urges new PM to keep to his electoral promises regarding police funding

ESSEX Police Federation is urging new PM Boris Johnson to keep his electoral promises and look at how police forces are funded.

And the pressure to return Essex police officer numbers to pre-austerity levels must be kept up, says Federation chairman Steve Taylor to ensure Essex communities get the police funding they deserve.

It’s something he says the Federation intends to hold Mr Johnson to, once he gets his feet under the table at Number 10.

Since 2010, 21,000 officers have been cut from police numbers across England and Wales.

“We are seeing the green shoots of recovery in Essex when it comes to police numbers and whilst we are returning towards pre-2010 numbers, it is an ongoing piece of work and we are trying to keep the pressure up on the PCC for the precept, but also for the police funding formula,” Steve said.

“Both candidates for the Conservative Party leadership were asked by the PCC what they planned to do in regards to the way police forces are funded, because we’ve maintained for a while that Essex doesn’t get a fair rub of the green when it comes to how we receive the grant from Central Government.

“So, whilst all that work is underway, we want to see Essex communities rewarded with a fairer police funding formula from the centre, whilst at the same time they are putting their own hand in their own pocket and increasing the precept locally,” he added.

“They’re paying their bit locally. We want to see the Government do right by the communities of Essex as well and some of that money can then to be used for continuing to grow police numbers [back to] 2010 levels.”