Council Tax Increase: Quentin Davies calls for Lincolnshire Police to be "capped" - 1 April 2008

Press Release

Quentin Davies M.P. has called for Lincolnshire Police Authority to be capped. As he promised in the House of Commons on 27 March he has now written to the Minister for Local Government, John Healey M.P., formally asking him to cap and to designate Lincolnshire.

Quentin Davies today said:

“I have been arguing about this with the Police Authority and with the Chief Constable since last June. I begged them not to go for such a disproportionate increase which will, unless the Government caps the Authority, increase the Council Tax on a Band D property by £100 a year.

Lincolnshire deserves more money from the Government and I will always fight for that. But this is the most crazy way to go about it.

If the Police Authority, apparently with the support of the County Council, say they can raise this kind of money from the public in Lincolnshire, the Government will be under no pressure whatever to come up with any themselves.

The Police Authority have also ignored the opportunities for savings.

According to their own figures Lincolnshire Constabulary use fewer civilians in back office jobs than other comparable forces, and civilians cost half as much as uniformed officers. Moreover, the Police Authority’s demands take no account of savings from the Flanagan reforms (reduction of paperwork and bureaucracy in the police) which the Government recently announced.

Lincolnshire is extremely well policed – not excessively, but also not inadequately. It is quite reasonable that the Chief Constable should hope for substantial increases in his budget. But the Police Authority are supposed to weigh the benefits of budgetary increases against the burden on the taxpayer. They have quite failed to do this. They have actually gone for a precept which on their own figures is twice what is required to maintain the status quo. No public authority should be able simply to impose a wish list on the public, and that is why I have called the Government to our aid.”