Caerphilly politicians have hit out at “irresponsible” UK Government cuts to Gwent Police’s budget, saying local people are “paying twice” for a council tax rise and loss of officers.
Wayne David MP and Jeff Cuthbert AM claimed “the loss of 223 police officers throughout Gwent can be directly attributable to the brutal cuts regime of an out of touch Tory-led Government”.
They said a 5% cut in funding from the Home Office to the force in 2015/16 threaten to cause “great problems for local policing”, adding to the criticism of the cuts by Gwent Police and Crime Commissioner Ian Johnston last month.
Mr Johnston said he was considering a rise in the council tax paid to the force, in a bid to “reduce the amount of reserves required to balance the budget next year”.
The cuts announced last month will see the Government’s police grant fall by £299m, meaning funding to Gwent Police will have been cut by a 30% in real terms over the last six years.
The cash cut for 2015/16 comes on top of the force’s recurring annual deficit of almost £6m.
Mr Cuthbert said: “I’m very concerned with the continuing reductions to the police budget especially considering the loss of over 220 police officers in the Gwent area to date.
“There’s a danger that ever decreasing budgets will mean further redundancies down the line and constituents will be more unhappy if this turns out to be the case.
“The real terms 30% reduction in Central Government grant for Gwent Police means there are fewer officers on the ground to deal with local problems.”
Mr David said: “Due to the drastic cuts imposed on Gwent Police by the Tory-led Government, local people are paying twice.
“Not only are they paying the price of the Government’s austerity measures through loss of police officers, they’re also having to pay more in council tax to help replenish the coffers of the dwindling police budget.”
But Policing Minister Mike Penning has previously dismissed concerns over police cuts in Gwent and said by cutting red tape and scrapping targets, police reform is working.
He said a survey shows crime has fallen by more than a fifth under the current Government and that police will still have resources to do their job.
Mr Penning said: “The police are making their contribution to reducing the deficit and Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary recently found that forces are successfully meeting the challenge of balancing their books while protecting the frontline and delivering reductions in crime.
“Under this Government there is significantly greater local accountability and transparency and police leaders have taken the opportunity to radically reform the way they deliver services to the public.”
The cuts won’t make any difference, Gwent police at best are worse than average, unfortunatly I have had reason to call upon Gwent police a number of times over the last couple of years and on each occasion their performce has been nothing short of appalling, one robbery I managed to solve myself after I saw my goods for sale on eBay – I did inform the police of this who did absolutely nothing about it, I tracked down the offender who was eventually given a few hours community service.
What is irresponsible is the above-3% council tax increase we will be facing just because CCBC cannot manage its budget properly.