Ridiculous increase in council tax for police funding

[NigelGresley]

Last year the increase on our council tax bill for the police was 12%, this year it has increased by 22% !!!

I am furious with the government for cutting central funding and transferring the burden to local people. But at the same time wondering whether our police force is really cutting its cloth accordingly.

Anyone else seen such huge increases?
How much longer can this continue? Some people are really going to struggle to pay.

I don't begrudge anyone a pension they have paid into...I do rather begrudge them a pension I have to pay into
So nobody in the public sector should get a pension ?
You are nice.

Fuzzy
Only muppets buy annuities now
All employers have to offer pension contributions now
only self employed sole traders have to buy their own pensions now
Pensions were only invented 100 years ago
They will be gone in another 50

do not begrudge the police for Quantitaive Easing trashing investment returns

Fuzzy you do realise that the police work 24 hours a day seven days a week, so chances are there is a police presence you just haven't seen them.
Besides I'm happy not to see police officers in my street, it's not like they're ringing the doorbell to tell me that I've won the Premium Bonds. More likely that they're because someone's life has been turned upside down; they've been a victim of crime, someone has killed themselves or they're passing on a death message or they've come to arrest someone, someone is suffering a mental health episode or they're returning a missing youth to their home.
But you keep on focusing on their police pensions. The pensions they've worked so hard for but chances are won't get to see the benefit of because all those years of shift work, cancelled rest days, no meal breaks, being spat at, stamped on and threatened have taken their toll.

@Fuzzypuffling
I am sorry that you felt the need to pull your posts.
I disagreed with them
but you were expressing quite eloquently what many feel.
I believe your views to be ill founded, but only by accepting that they exist can they be addressed.

Have a good weekend anyway.
And look after yourself as chronic illnesses are something that most of our 'elected representatives' do not comprehend at all.

not particularly thrilled about the rise in council tax but since my dh joined I've been horrified to hear they police well over 50,000 people with 8 police officers on most days and they survive on over time. they have been stripped to the bare minimum and taking on jobs that should not be theirs such as detaining mental health patients who would be far safer in hospitals. there is no simple fix. everytime the wage increases the taxes increase to cover the costs

FWIW
Police pension. Joined at 37. If I work frontline til 60 (snorts derision) I will get a 47,000 lump sum and about £600 per month.

Hardly a gold plated pension really is it?

Here's a question I've wondered, if anyone can answer.

The main times police presence is needed, football matches, Friday and Saturday night town centre night clubs, marches by groups which may cause trouble etc.
Do those places, the night club's, football clubs, the marching groups etc. pay more to cover the extra police expenses? If they don't, why don't they?

Not sure about the others but I believe that football matches get some funding from the football club itself.
Nightclubs don't but their own security are a big help in sorting a lot of trouble / moving people on.

Our council tax bill hasn't arrived yet.

I'm shitting myself every single time the postman rattles the letterbox.

We are only just making ends meet as it is and after a massive hike in our prepayment metered electric (we have no gas, not even the pipes for it, so energy costs are God damned high), a massive hike in council tax will fuck us over completely.

We both need extensive dental work after years of not being able to afford to go (even with NHS dentistry) and have nowt left after bills and a bit of food as it is.

I'm a fucking budgeting commando and we are still in the shit most weeks.

I spend my days fucking terrified that DH will lose his shitty one 51 pence pay rise in ten years job. The welfare state, the prospect of being possibly being beholden to it, fills my heart and mind with dread.

There has been a council tax freeze here for many years all services have seen huge cutbacks from police, social services to libraries and cleansing services. If we want to see improvements in any of these then we need to start paying more. No I don't like seeing my poxy salary increase eaten up by tax increases but I don't want to see rat infestations because the council can't afford to uplift rubbish and I certainly don't want an increase in crime rates because of a lack of police funding.

I've just got home after a 19 hour shift for which I will be paid 8 hours only as there's no money for overtime. I chose to stay on to try to catch up with my work, as it's not fair on the victims when I don't get time to investigate their jobs.

As I left, the nights team of 6 officers were all out at serious incidents, and the 5th prisoner of the night was setting off on the 50 minute journey to the nearest custody suite, as we couldn't afford to keep the cells open at our station.

This leaves no free officers now in an area of 400 square miles. Emergency incidents are still coming in, and a suspect for a serious wounding is still at large as there is no one free to try to locate him.

2 of those officers should have gone home an hour ago. All 6 officers have at least 90 minutes of paperwork to do each when they finish dealing with their current jobs, plus any further incidents they will attend when they do come free. The officers at custody can sometimes queue for another hour to book in the prisoner, then the 50 minute drive back before they can think about starting their paperwork.

I think if people really knew how few officers were available to keep them safe every day and night, they would be truly horrified. And would understand why the rise in council tax is required, which is a very small drop in the ocean of cuts the government has inflicted on our public services.

You're blaming the police when they have been cut to the bone. The real vacuum of local government spending is older persons social care. Care home placements are 600-1000 a week, and much of that is paid for by city and county councils.
I'd much rather my money went to increases in the police force, I see the cuts and the impacts as I work in youth offending. A large part of the slack there is picked up by the local council.
How do people think all these services are supposed to be paid for?
Someone up thread talked about fat trimming council staff, but I'm doing the jobs of what was 3 different people 2 years ago...

heron - as someone who works for a company that has been trimming staff for the last 15+ years in the commercial sector , I dont think the 'we're cut to the bone/i'm doing jobs of 3 people' washes much with the public. to many people that is usual and with more streamlined working is not always such an issue. However, some sectors - police being one of them - does look underfunded and as i said earlier on the thread i dont object to my tax increase to fund them.

Our police precept has gone up by a similar percentage. And yes, we have a problem with it because we have one pcso on a push bike covering two borough wards.

When our local parish council spoke to the PCC for our region, he basically told us that all resources are allocated to the two big cities in our region. There's nothing left over for our area, and barely anything for our two nearest towns.

As a result, our crime rate has gone through the roof: burglaries where entry is gained through blowtorching pvc doors (leaving families terrified they will burn to death while they sleep), a plethora of drug labs, bank robberies...

When our local parish council asked whether, as a community, we could use parish council funds to buy in more police support, maybe even fund another pcso or purchase a car for our pcso, we were told, in no uncertain terms, that was impossible.

People are not happy about it. As a result, the community, in order to protect themselves, has turned to uping the ante on neighbourhood watch, wirh alerts sent through social media groups, and in some areas, they now run private patrols at night.

It's only a matter of time before something goes badly wrong. Or the backlash from the public about paying for a police service they do not receive has political blowback.

But this is the state of governance in Britain in 2019. And people will carry on voting for the same political parties and the same stuffed shirts who will refuse to rock the boat by asking pertinent questions. Until, of course, the day when the whole ship sinks.

HerondaleDucks

There are councils that have no significant elder care social burden. I think York is one (would gave to check) and a council near the north west coast. You know why?

Because those councils planned their provision years ago. They ensured they had low to medium support housing complexes available for the elderly, so the options were not just limited to high support care homes or in-home support, both of which cost a fortune.

The elder social care burden is a result of poor governance, planning, foresight and intelligence on the part of local politicians. It could have been avoided in many areas.

But instead, in my borough, which has a horrendous elder social care problem, the council has instead decided to borrow millions of pounds to renovate an old 1980s buildings in the ridiculous hope of attracting a Primark when there are already newer units with twice the floor space standing empty.

I agree that council tax increases are a burden for many. I do not blame my local council though, but the Tory chancellors who have cut funding whilst giving high earners and large corporations tax cuts.

This popped up on Twitter. It was sent out with council tax bill.
Hampshire Police.

Why is the anger always directed at the police and not at the people committing the crime?
The criminals are the ones committing crime thus placing a demand on overstretched resources and putting your bills up, so direct your ire towards them. Oh and by the way the police percentage of council tax is actually tiny in comparison to what the council take. Yes YABU.

This!

The most expensive band H properties in Westminster will pay £1421

Tell me that is fair ?

Westminster ,some of the most expensive land in the world and with some of the worlds wealthiest people living there.

www.westminster.gov.uk/council-tax-bands-and-rates

Cheapest property i could find was a slum for £320,000

All leasehold of course as the Duke of Westminster says he owns all that land.

Arnold the H band is less than band C is where I live, we're band D and ours is going to come in at over £2k this year.

It’s a shock. We’re in a band A property....ours has gone up £6 a month

If the anecdotes that so many policepeople keep giving us are true, in conjunction with the awful experiences of citizens, why do you all keep voting tory? And don't lie, we know you do.

So, in the UK, police are funded by county councils? Councils pass on the cost, obviously? Does seem an expensive way to do it.