Clive Baker from the Office of
the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC); presented the proposals
for the 2016/17 precept.
The proposal was an increase of
just under 2%, which equated to £3.12 per
household for the
year.
This increase would enable the
PCC to protect Community Policing, which was greatly valued. Local
Policing was key, and would continue as before.
Crime
and Public Confidence
-
Crime increased by 12% from December 2014 to
November 2015, 7th lowest crime rate nationally with 50.7 crimes
per 1,000 population.
-
Public confidence measured by the OPCC Survey in
2015 is 83.7%, and had been consistently high since
2012.
-
Victim satisfaction to October 2015 is 84.3% which
is around the national average.
A
good HMIC Assessment of Wiltshire Police
-
Performance was regularly assessed by Her
Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary.
-
Overall Wiltshire Police was rated as
“good”.
-
Our constabulary remained one of the best in the
country.
The Chairman explained that he
and Cllr Johnson were both members of the Police and Crime Panel,
which would be meeting the following week to consider the PCC's
proposals.
Questions and comments were
then taken, these included:
- What did you
mean by reserves? Answer: Some funds were ring-fenced for certain
purposes, whilst other reserves were for other things. There would
be £9 million at the end of 2016, under the new plan that
would drop by £5 million the following year.
- There were
talks of forces amalgamating, as we currently had one of the lowest
crime rates across the country, how would an amalgamation affect
that? Answer: This Police force was not considering a merger. There
were discussions around the possibility of an alliance with Avon
& Somerset, but we were not at a decision stage
yet.
- Can you
confirm that there would not be any resurrection of any major
projects in the New Year, such as the helicopter? Answer: Capital
spending had changed drastically, we used to see investment in
property, where as now we work more towards moving people and
utilising space as best we can. Investment now goes to technology.
Big visible things won't happen.
- Were you
given any guidance from external auditors regarding your reserves?
Answer: Auditors want to come in and give their own views, they do
not give us a figure. Nationally there was a figure of around 3%.
As the Section 151 Officer, it was my duty to look at reserves when
the PCC considers reducing them.
- In past
years the Commissioner had made a strong point of protecting local
policing. There had been no way of knowing if the 1.9% went into
local policing. Answer: The PCC was proposing to give the Chief
Constable enough money to maintain Community Policing. He would set
the direction for this on 1 April 2016. Financial information was
available in the Medium Term Financial Strategy on the PCC
website.
The Chairman asked for a show
of hands in the room of those in support of the increase. The
majority supported the proposals.