Council tax to support Surrey police up by 9.7% !!!!!

Let me share with you what just dropped through my door yesterday to explain the staggering 9.7% increase in the council tax element that support our local police.

Its pretty frank and blames Labour squarely.

Putting the Surrey public first

Surrey receives one of the lowest Government grants per person for policing due to an unfair funding formula. If our grant was at the average rate of other forces around London (£106 per person) Surrey would receive an additional £18.2 million.

The formula takes no account of the challenges we face from criminals coming into the county from elsewhere. Fifty nine per cent of identified organised crime gangs affecting Surrey are engaged in drugs supply and originate from London, while 47 per cent of burglary and vehicle crime offenders come from outside Surrey, more than half of these from London. The funding formula also takes no account of our need to invest more in counter-terrorism policing.

In addition, our policing activity is often driven by Government targets rather than by local needs, taking away officers' ability to use their own professional judgement to do what is best for their local communities.

Surrey still has one of the lowest crime rates in England but we are concerned that poor funding will reduce effective policing. We have lobbied the Government and made our funding difficulties very clear to the Home Office, but without success. .

To try to address the funding gap, we have made efficiency savings of £50m in the past nine years; we are reducing our policing divisions from four to three and reviewing our support departments to make further savings.

Even with this programme, we still face a deficit of £3.1 million next year.

We are therefore asking Surrey residents to increase, above Government expectations, the amount they contribute towards policing this year to help minimise any reduction in services. This is part of a three-year strategy and we anticipate we will not be asking the people of Surrey to increase their contribution at the same level in forthcoming years.

The Council Tax set for 2008/09 will enable us to:

• Maintain our investment in neighbourhood policing

• Develop Operation Shield - the creation of a protective 'shield' around Surrey by using intelligence and other policing resources to help prevent cross-border crime, particularly from London

• Invest in counter-terrorism - improving our ability to respond to a terrorist incident.

Because we recognise that Surrey residents already contribute nearly 50 per cent of the policing budget - compared to the national average of 22 per cent - we are also introducing 'Surrey Public First', an initiative designed to step outside some of the national bureaucracy and give officers the discretion to do what is best for the public of Surrey.

Keeping people safe and confident in their neighbourhoods remains our top priority.

Surrey Police Authority is legally required to produce this information under The Council Tax and Non-Domestic Rating (Demand Notices) (England) Regulations 2003 - SI 2003/2613.