Council tax rise agreed, and officers no longer required to retire after 30 years

Nottinghamshire Police Authority has today agreed to increase the public’s contribution towards policing costs and an end to the forced retirement of experienced policemen.

Members voted to increase the proportion of council tax which funds policing by 3.93%.

The increase amounts to just over 1p per day extra for Band A property.

The authority says this will mean there will be 100 extra officers working on the frontline by 2015.

In contrast to kick-starting recruitment after a freeze, it agreed to put a stop to Regulation A19 - the forced redundancy of police officers with 30 years pensionable service - from March 31 2012.

Regulation A19 has seen 150 officers lose their jobs to save money.

Residents living in a Band D property will pay an additional 12p a week which equates to £6.30 per year, with the total council tax bill standing at £166.41 per year.

The budget for policing Nottinghamshire in 2012/13 has been set at £191.3m.

This includes the resources needed to address the crime priorities outlined by the public.

This will lead to another 56 police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) being recruited next year.

It would mean every neighbourhood policing area would receive at least one extra PCSO.

Chairman of Nottinghamshire Police Authority, Jon Collins, said: “We’ve looked at all the options available, including accepting the Government’s freeze grant, but simply couldn’t risk going down the road of taking a payment which only protected us against the ‘here and now’ and not the long-term future.

"Accepting the freeze grant would have left the force with £2.1m less each year than the proposal agreed by the authority today.

"This would have compromised our ability to maintain current numbers of police officers and PCSOs.

"It was a tough decision but one backed by both the public and our local partners in consultation and has been calculated to ensure Nottinghamshire continues to have the manpower and resilience to meet future threats.

“We’ve already wiped £10.3m off the budget and have so far managed to limit the impact of any cuts on performance. It would have been incredibly difficult to sustain front-line capabilities without the precept increase and this decision will ensure we can deliver exactly what the public wants – lower crime rates and for the police to be there when they are needed.

“This will be the last time that the police authority sets a budget before the Police and Crime Commissioner takes over in November. By paying a small amount extra towards policing our residents have protected jobs and have significantly reduced the financial burden we face to ensure the incoming Commissioner has the best possible framework to deliver local policing in the future.”