Police and Crime Panel supports PCC’s plan to increase policing precept

Police and Crime Commissioner, Tim Passmore announced today (Friday January 30) that he will be asking council taxpayers to pay an average 6p a week extra towards policing in the county in the next financial year.

The PCC presented his proposal to the Police and Crime Panel meeting at Suffolk County Council’s HQ for their consideration; the panel unanimously supported the proposal.

For the past two years the policing element of Suffolk’s council tax precept has been frozen but this year the PCC felt in view of the financial challenges we are facing and the enormous demand that the Constabulary is managing, he should implement a small increase of just less than 2%.

Tim Passmore said, “Before making the decision I held a public consultation and was pleased to receive over 1,600 responses from the council tax-payers in Suffolk. I was reassured that the majority of the people that responded to the survey (80%) 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.”

By putting up the policing element of the precept by 1.997%, the average council tax payment will increase from £166.77 to £170.10 per year in 2015/16, an average of just 6p a week (based on Band D property).