Kenilworth Town Council
Helping to make Kenilworth a great place to live, work and learn
What are you looking for?
The Police and Crime Commissioner has a statutory duty to consult the public each year, prior to setting the Police Precept element of the local Council Tax. This year’s budget setting process has now begun, although this is complicated by the timing of the recent general election, meaning that the usual communications from government about central police budget allocations and any capping rates for precept rises have not yet been made.
The Police and Crime Commissioner has had to begin its consultation with the public without these key pieces of information in place and are instead seeking to understand the public’s overall views on the approach to police funding.
The Kenilworth Town Council has been asked to help in publicising this consultation.
An online survey has been launched outlining three options for funding Warwickshire Police in 2020/21, including a freeze on the precept, an increase of 4.99% or an increase of above 4.99%, the latter of which would allow for further investment in technology and infrastructure to support the increased numbers of police officers now in the county. Clearly, any final option taken forward will need to reflect the final settlement from central government and be within any capping limits, once established.
You can find more information by reading the press release created to announce the start of the consultation, this can be found at: https://www.warwickshire-pcc.gov.uk/pcc-launches-annual-police-budget-consultation/
The survey itself is located at: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/precept20-21
Paper copies of the survey are available from their office, which is located at 3 Northgate Street, Warwick CV34 4SP, as well and for download on the press release page. The Police and Crime Commissioner are also hosting consultation events with the county’s elected MPs, local authority representatives, business sector leads and rural communities in January.
Their budget needs to be agreed with the Police and Crime Panel in early February, so timescales are necessarily tight in order to ensure that the public’s feedback can be incorporated into the decision making process. The online survey will therefore close at 4pm on Friday, January 17.
