GLOUCESTERSHIRE'S police and crime commissioner Martin Surl will ask the county’s police and crime panel to support a 1.2 per cent increase in the council tax precept to pay for extra policing.

The proposed rise is less than Chief Constable Suzette Davenport asked for and works out at under £3 on the annual bill for a band D householder while making the overall police budget around £106 million.

A 1.2 per cent increase in the police precept will raise around £560,000 that will lead to an additional 40 officers and an additional 200 special constables being recruited over the next four years. 

The proposals also include provision for 1 per cent of the policing budget to be made available for community projects and programmes managed through the Commissioner’s Fund.

Mr. Surl said: “This is a responsible budget that will enable the chief constable to meet her operational responsibilities, enable her to implement her plan to bring the force back up to the strength required.

"A higher figure would have placed an unfair burden on local taxpayers who are facing further increases to pay for local council services”.

To supplement a 1.2 per cent increase, a further £8 million will be released from Police reserves (See notes below).

Mr. Surl said, “This has probably been the most difficult of the four budgets I have had to write because for much of the last year, the Chief Constable and I were being told to prepare for cuts of up 25-40%.  

“Thankfully, the Chancellor surprised everyone when he announced in his Autumn Statement there would be ‘No cuts in the police’. But that only related to the Home Office settlement and that figure had still to be distributed amongst the country’s 43 police forces through a complicated funding formula.

“Although the Constabulary is in a much better position than everyone expected, the lack of clarity around how the funding formula will be applied in future means we cannot assume that austerity is over.

"The budget I have prepared reflects the responsibility of the police to protect the public against a backdrop of continued financial uncertainty”.    

The commissioner will ask Gloucestershire County Council’s police and crime panel to support his budget at its next meeting on February 5.