Crime commissioner's policing budget dramatically rejected

Rupert Matthews, a member of Reform UK, wanted to raise the levy – money which contributes to Council Tax bills – by £11 a year for an average Band D property instead of the maximum allowable which is £15 per annum.

This was strongly opposed by Temporary Chief Constable, David Sandall and Leicester Police Federation chairman Andy Spence who said the proposed budget would leave a £4.7M funding gap.

And crime panel member Sharon Butcher, Melton borough councillor for Craven Ward and vice-chair of the Safer Melton Partnership, said she had ‘grave concerns’ about the amount of money Mr Matthews had planned to put into policing.

She said she believed most people would be happy to pay the extra £4 a year – the equivalent of 8p a week – to provide the extra funding for policing.

But after his budget was vetoed in a vote by the panel at today’s meeting, Mr Matthews said he proposed the smaller levy because he wanted to reduce residents’ household bills. He says £3.5M in savings had already been identified in the budget so the chief constable had to find a further £1.2M in cuts.

Mr Matthews said: “The amount of coverage given to the views of those against my proposal ahead of the Panel meeting has undermined due process, so I’m hardly surprised at the Panel’s voting predisposition.

“It is ironic that my proposal not to impose the highest possible tax on local residents has been vetoed by those elected to represent them.

“To make it quite clear: the budget has not been ‘cut’.

"I allocated a five per cent increase to Leicestershire Police, which equates to £13.5M more funding than last year.

"The deficit mentioned is down to £1.2M in the coming year from a budget of nearly £300M.

"I have every confidence that the Chief Constable and his team can achieve that without undue challenge.”

The Panel will sit again next week to revisit the budget and set the Council Tax levy for policing.

Mr Matthews added: “I will not just take the highest amount simply because I can; there is already enough pressure on households up and down the country.

"We need to reset the approach to taxation, and take what we must have, not what large public corporations would like to have.

“We will now revisit our spreadsheets and return with our revised figures on February 12.”

Mr Matthews said he planned to save more than £160,000 in his own office budget (about three per cent of it) to re-invest in frontline policing.

A report which went before today’s Police and Crime Panel meeting highlighted that 17 police staff roles were already set to be lost – alongside one superintendent post – which would save the Leicestershire and Rutland force nearly £1M.

Leicestershire Police is already one of the lowest funded police forces nationwide – seventh lowest out of 43 – and in the last three years it has seen a reduction in funding of £23M.