30 January 2016 PCC announces policing precept increase of 1p* a day Tim Passmore announced today (Friday January 29) that he will be asking council taxpayers to pay an average of just under 7p a week extra towards policing in the county in the next financial year. The PCC presented his precept proposal to the Police and Crime Panel meeting at Suffolk County Council’s HQ today for their consideration; the panel unanimously supported the proposal. Raising the precept by 1.958% will add £830K to the Constabulary’s budget in the next financial year, which will help fund 20 police officers to focus on protecting vulnerable people and support the county’s cyber-crime investigations and three PCSOs to carry out a liaison role in schools right across the county. This increase to the policing element of the precept means the average council tax payment will increase from £170.10 to £173.43 per year in 2016/17, an average of just under 7p a week (based on Band D property). Tim Passmore said, “Before making the decision to increase the precept I held a public consultation and was reassured that the majority of the people that responded to the survey (70%) were prepared to pay a little extra for their police service. This extra money will help us to continue to keep you safe and meet some of the financial challenge that we face in the coming financial year.” He added, “Suffolk Constabulary does a great job; it’s a low-cost force and offers good value for money but savings still need to be made. “To meet these challenges, a comprehensive review of local policing has been carried out and the resulting changes will be implemented in April 2016. The demand on the constabulary is changing so the way we police the need to change too but I want to reassure everyone that Suffolk Constabulary will continue to respond in an emergency and safer neighbourhood teams will continue to operate locally, supported by the neighbourhood response teams and enhanced investigation teams.” * Based on a Band D property