North Yorkshire Police Commissioner plans for maximum council tax rise
Zoe Metcalfe will ask on Monday to add £10 to a Band D property
The police commissioner for North Yorkshire and York has announced her intention to levy the maximum council tax rise permitted, despite the cost of living crisis and the force already having the fourth highest policing precept level in England.
Zoe Metcalfe will ask the area’s Police, Fire and Crime Panel on Monday to consider her proposal to add £10 to a Band D property’s council tax bill for the coming financial year, which would see the average household charged £281.06 for the service.
The proposed 3.69 per cent rise over the 2021/22 police precept comes just three years after the panel vetoed then commissioner Julia Mulligan’s proposals for a sharp precept rise, before agreeing to an increase of just under ten per cent, to give the force a chance to “redress the balance” towards community policing.
In a report to the panel, Ms Metcalfe said the rise would help pay for the 78 additional police officers the force needed to recruit before the end of March next year, as required by the Government, bringing its total police officer number to 1,645.
In the report she claimed the precept increase would also cover an expected increase in pay and an increase in National Insurance contributions while also meeting inflation.
However, the proposed £10 police demand comes alongside a proposed £56 increase in North Yorkshire County Council’s precept and further increases from district and borough councils.
Before those proposed increases were unveiled some 59 per cent of 2,500 responses to a consultation on the police precept stated they would only be prepared to pay a rise of 1.99 per cent or less.
Responding to the long-standing concerns over the force’s answering of phone calls, the commissioner said over the next year the additional precept funding would be used to add 34 officers to its Customer Contact centre to provide an improved service to the public.
The funding would also be used for four extra officers to support more focused operational activity, such as warrants within local communities, alongside 13 additional officers to support neighbourhood policing teams.
She said eight officers would be allocated to raise standards and improve the quality of our engagement with victims, recognising the force needs to strengthen its approach to safeguarding and specifically in the areas of violence against women and girls.
The commissioner said a further ten officers would be used to grow and strengthen the Roads Policing Team, following some 40 fatalities and 277 serious injuries on the roads of North Yorkshire last year.
Ms Metcalfe wrote: “I have been clear with the force that in asking the public of North Yorkshire to pay more they should expect more from their police service. With this in mind I have asked the Chief Constable to set out her priorities for 2022/23, linking to those areas that I have indicated as a priority in the Police and Crime Plan, that I am developing, and I will hold the Chief Constable to account for delivery of these during 2022/23.
“The cornerstone of much of the investment and work in 2022/23 will surround the Chief Constable’s vision “to see early intervention and prevention truly embedded as a way of working across the whole organisation.
“Preventing someone from coming to harm in the first place or doing a job right first time is the most effective way of improving the quality of life for all of our communities.
“This would be the fourth lowest percentage increase in England, which results from North Yorkshire having the fourth highest policing precept level in England (down from second highest in the previous year) and a current precept level that is over 13 per cent higher than the national average.”