Council tax could rise to fund 40 more police officers

The Commissioner will present the proposed budget for 2019-20 to the Police and Crime Panel at its meeting on February 7.

A report shows that this budget will allow 40 frontline police officers to be recruited during the year.

Of these 40 new posts, 33 officers will be deployed into Neighbourhood Policing teams for a local, visible and reassuring policing resource across the whole force area.

Seven officers will form a specialist force robbery team which will work closely with the knife crime team to pro-actively target offenders.

Knife and hate crime prevention aimed at youngsters who are moving from primary to secondary education, will be increased.

Paddy Tipping said: “People want to see more officers out and about in communities. They want to feel safe, and be safe, on the streets and in their neighbourhoods. We must address the issues that concern people most.

“That’s why I also fund a number of crime prevention initiatives in the community and the Chief Constable Craig Guildford has put Schools Officers across the force.

"We want to broaden this preventative approach by working with local schools and the third sector at a time when both are under considerable strain. It’s a longer-term investment aimed at enabling younger people to make good life choices as, sadly, at the moment young people continue to be over-represented as both victims and offenders in knife-related crime.”

Chief Constable Craig Guildford added that: “Public surveys keep telling us that people want to see local Neighbourhood officers patrolling their area and solving problems, investigating crimes and tackling ASB.

“We will also have a new robbery team, which will operate across the force, responding to intelligence and using some of the most intrusive policing techniques in our bid to make Nottinghamshire a no-go area for robbery and violent crime.”

The Commissioner will present his plans to the Police and Crime Panel for its scrutiny and approval of the policing precept. He will explain that he intends to set the budget for policing Nottinghamshire in 2019/20 at £206.3m, with a Band D property paying a total of £219.33 per annum towards policing.

However,most people will pay less than this due to the predominance of Band A and B properties across the force area.

The revenue budget for policing and community safety in Nottinghamshire for 2019-20 is proposed at a figure of £206.3m, £13.2m more than the 2018-19 figure of £193.1m.

Of this, £138.6m comes from the Government and £69.5m comes from local taxpayers through the policing precept on the council tax.

Here is what you will pay in 2019/20:

Band A - £146.22, up from £130.26

Band B - £170.59 up from £151.97

Band C - £194.96 up from £173.68

Band D - £195.39, up from £219.33

Band E - £268.07, up from £238.81

Band F - £316.81, up from £282.23

Band G - £365.55, up from £325.65

Band H - £438.66, up from £390.78