Tax rise to pay for new police in Notts
A TOTAL of 150 new police officers will arrive in Notts in the first part of a plan to recruit hundreds of beat PCs.
Notts police and crime commissioner Paddy Tipping promised the new officers before his election in November.
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Thin blue line: Chief Constable Chris Eyre and Police and Crime Commissioner Paddy Tipping with student police officers currently in training at the Watnall Road Training Centre, in Notts. The police's budget for the year includes plans for 150 new beat police officers.
Their recruitment was confirmed yesterday at the unveiling of his first annual budget.
He also said another 120 new officers would be recruited in each of the 2014-2015 and 2015 -2016 financial years.
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But there are no plans to re-instate police horses – controversially scrapped in June.
To help pay for the first round of officers Mr Tipping wants to put up the police section of Notts council tax bills by 1.95 per cent – meaning the average Band D home paying an extra £3.24 for policing for the year from April.
Mr Tipping said: "My commitment has been to get more officers in neighbourhood teams because people have said to me they want to see more uniformed police presence on the streets.
"We need to protect funding for policing not just this year, but in the future. We need to make sure that crime continues to fall – you can't do that by cutting resources."
Cuts and efficiencies, including recruiting more "civilian investigators" as reported in yesterday's Post, will also help pay for the plans, which go before Notts Police and Crime Panel next Wednesday.
The recruitment drive comes after more than 150 officers with more than 30 years' service were forced to retire – a move being legally challenged by the Police Federation.
The force has been told by the Government to save £42m – or 20 per cent of its budget – over four years.
Due to other planned retirements and officers leaving, the new officers are not expected to increase head-count by 390 – but all will go into frontline neighbourhood beat teams when their training is over.
Notts Police Chief Constable Chris Eyre said: "With 20 per cent cuts we can't do what we were doing in 2009 – but working with Paddy we're finding innovative solutions.
"We're working in a world where there is no new money."
A report in February said that it would cost £424,000 to restore the mounted section.
Mr Tipping said: "We can't find the £424,000 – by spending that we would not have been able to recruit as many new PCs. It's a straight trade-off."
The first recruitment ads will appear in February and officers will be taken on in batches of around 16.
18 Comments
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by roscoe1895
Friday, February 01 2013, 3:29PM
“I'm amazed that people are actually surprised at this... Tipping is and always will be a puppet of the Labour party. Maybe people should have voted for Mr Spencer, the only candidate with any Policing knowlege and experience and no party allegeinces.”
by mof_gedling
Friday, February 01 2013, 3:04PM
“so in a nutshell, savings are made but they put the taxes up anyway ? why the greed ?”
by Treetop99
Friday, February 01 2013, 1:06PM
“Extra tax for extra police officers, please explain Mr Tipping.
Applications were only excepted from people already in post as a PCSO or a detention office, this drive was not open to the public..
Forgive me if I'm wrong, we were already paying their wages, and they haven't been replaced in those roles.
Publicity band wagon that is full of holes and lies.”
by pinkymoocow
Friday, February 01 2013, 9:28AM
“SBBahn I certainly don't want lawlessness and I don't object to a small increase in tax to pay for more officers, what I do object to is being told that I will be paying more money for police officers when the actual numbers of officers will remain the same. What exactly will we be paying for? Also when the starting wage for police has been dropped so drastically, and PCSO's don't claim a huge amount of expenses I cannot for the life of me figure out how this tax increase can be honestly applied.”
by the-crossed
Thursday, January 31 2013, 9:49PM
“by mof_gedlingThursday, January 31 2013, 6:20PM
"that guy on the left does the best Fred Scuttle impression i have seen in a long while".....
Love it! Made me laugh out loud (Or LOL as the kids say!)”
by smshogun
Thursday, January 31 2013, 6:40PM
“And claim its now a local issue.”
by DunkirkPie
Thursday, January 31 2013, 6:22PM
“The beauty of this from central government's point of view is that they will be able to shrug their shoulders and absolve themselves of all responsibility whenever the question of increasing taxes to pay for policing and/or reduced quality of policing is raised.”
by mof_gedling
Thursday, January 31 2013, 6:20PM
“that guy on the left does the best Fred Scuttle impression i have seen in a long while,love the red card with x 10 so we can understand things.”
by iwilltellit
Thursday, January 31 2013, 6:18PM
“Typical lying hypocrite”
by the-crossed
Thursday, January 31 2013, 5:51PM
“It seems madness that experienced officers are being pushed out the back door while rookies are brought in the front door.
While I understand that 'new blood' will always be needed, you can't beat experience and I thought age discrimination was frowned upon.
And yes...I agree with other posters that I don't remember Tipping mentioning a rise in tax when he stood for election...Still I suppose tax rises are a given with Labour so its not unsurprising...
.....Now then, about those Mortgage repayments.....£14,320.00 wasn't it?...A simple error of judgement.....As you do!”