The scale of the financial challenges facing policing in Cleveland in the coming years will be spelled out in stark terms to members of the Police Authority later this week.
Members will be told that, under the ‘worst case’ scenario, they could face the prospect of having to find savings of around £30million a year by 2015—at the same time as ensuring that front-line policing for local communities is protected.
At its meeting on Thursday (February 25th) Authority members will be asked to agree a rise of 2.94 per cent for the Council precept for the coming financial year—equivalent to a rise of around a penny a day for the majority of Council Tax payers in the area.
Authority Chair, Councillor Dave McLuckie, says that, whilst the budget position for the next 12 months is relatively clear, they will in future be ‘moving into unknown territory—and we must be prepared.’
He explained “All the evidence shows that, in common with the rest of public sector spending, things are going to be very tough in the next few year—and we cannot expect that policing will escape the impact of significant cuts in funding.
“We believe the right thing to do is recognise the challenge and start taking action now to deal with it. That is why we have set out two possible scenarios for the next four years—both assume that there will be no growth in the Council Tax precept after the coming year and examine the savings we will be required to make in the event of Government funding being cut by three or five percent.
“In the case of a three per cent reduction we would need to find recurring annual savings of over £22million by 2015 and in the case of a five per cent reduction the annual savings required would be approaching £30million.
“Whatever the final level of savings we have the find it’s clear that it will require a radical review of all our operations if we are to deliver on our top priority of maintaining—and indeed strengthening—front-line policing.
“In fact, of course, we have begun that process with our consideration of working with a private sector partner in delivering ‘back office’ functions. Whilst no final decision has been taken it is clear that this could potentially deliver savings of many millions of pounds.
“Another crucial issue is maximising the numbers of officers available for front-line policing. That means looking at those support activities currently undertaken by officers and seeing if they could in fact be carried out by civilian staff.
“This approach is not something new—it has already proved a success in our custody service where working with a private sector partner released a significant number of officers for front-line operations.
“I want to be clear that, whilst we may need to reduce overall officer numbers as part of our strategy for meeting the financial challenge, we will not allow front-line resources to suffer.”
Chief Constable of Cleveland Police Sean Price said: “It is no secret that we the whole of the public sector faces dramatic budgetary reductions over the coming years, and our challenge at Cleveland Police will be to protect jobs and services while making the required savings. We have already started to explore a partnership arrangement with the private sector for delivering our back office functions which has the potential to provide these savings, although a final decision has not yet been reached.
“Despite the financial climate, we remain fully committed to Putting People First, which means protecting jobs whilst continuing to deliver the best possible service to the people of Cleveland.”
The proposed precept increase for the coming year would see the benchmark Band D precept rise by £5.37p to £187.84, but in Cleveland the majority of households fall into Bands A and B where the annual increases would be £3.58 and £4.18.
22-2-10