The portion of the council tax bill that pays for police services will increase by 4.37% from April, Gwent’s Police and Crime Commissioner Jeff Cuthbert has announced.
The average household which falls in the Gwent force area will now pay just over 19p a week more for its policing service.
Last month, the independent Gwent Police and Crime Panel asked Mr Cuthbert to consider an alternative increase of 3.99% to his proposed increase of 4.49%. After careful consideration, Mr Cuthbert has decided to set the increase at 4.37%.
Labour’s Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner Mr Cuthbert said he had “no choice” other than to turn to local taxpayers in light of insufficient funding from the UK Government, an increase in recorded crime, and more complex crimes being committed,
He said: “The decision to increase the Precept is not one I have taken lightly and I recognise that any increase in taxation at any level will be challenging for some of our residents.
“However, this is the right decision for policing and the safety of our communities and it received endorsement from the public in my consultation.”
Why not simply get rid of some of the 17 members of staff supporting this pointless position of Police and Crime Commissioner, or he could pay some of his own expenses out of his whopping £70’000 per year salary…….tax tax tax always the Labour way, need to balance the books well simply tax us all some more, Welsh Labour – for the privileged few not the many.
We are getting “Less for More” – when there is no visible police presence and crime is rising they cannot justify such an increase in the Police precept of our council tax.
Not only should they get rid of some of the 17 staff supporting the Police & Crime Commissioner,but they should also get rid of every Community Support Officer – what is needed to restore public confidence is fully trained Police Officers visibly patrolling in our communities – anything less than this is totally unacceptable.
It is useless having Community Officers with little or no powers.
A rise of 4.37% for something we never see, we dont see the police now, we don’t see the CPO’s we don’t see those council warden type people. Scrap CPO’s the wardens and put the money into the real police and then we wouldn’t have to pay more.