Cumbria Police Authority has today set its final budget that it will have full responsibility for holding the Chief Constable to account for its delivery.
The Police Authority will set the 2012/13 budget however under the intended timetable will be replaced by an elected Police and Crime commissioner in May 2012, who will take responsibility for holding the Chief Constable to account for its subsequent delivery.
The budget has been set inline with Government exhortations that there isn’t a rise in council tax. However, the Authority has been compensated by an additional special grant equivalent to 2.5% of council tax that might otherwise have been raised from taxpayers.
Police Authority chair, Ray Cole said: “These are unprecedented times and mark some unimaginable outcomes. Not only will this be the last budget that the Authority will have oversight throughout the coming year it will also be implementing significant cuts in the overall policing budget as savings of £18.7million are made over the next four years.
“The Police Authority fully supports the Constabulary in its programme of cuts and has asked that wherever possible frontline policing is not affected. The budget that we have agreed today is the first in a four-year transition period and it is forecast that 66% of the budget cuts required will be in the first two years. The Constabulary faces some difficult challenges due to the scale of the budget cuts over a four year period.”
Chief Constable, Craig Mackey said: “This is a challenging time for the Constabulary with significantly reduced budgets over the next four years.
“The scale of the budget cuts means that the Constabulary will have to shrink by a fifth by 2015. This cannot simply be achieved by reducing support functions and we have a detailed programme of work to change the structure and the way that we work. These include: the re-structuring of the way that the Constabulary deals with urgent and community calls, increasing the use of mobile working where officers can benefit from direct access to computer systems while in the community, streamlining management structures and reducing bureaucracy by removing processes which create an unnecessary paper audit.
“The total savings required for 2011/12 will be £7.6million and, given some of the work that has already been identified, in the short term, we will be able to balance the budget by budget cuts of £5.6million and recycling the savings made in 2010/11 financial year.
“Work is already well developed to find further savings by: a review of the estate and front counter services and will explore opportunities to work with partner agencies, reducing our vehicle budget by 30%, our ICT and Programme Management Unit costs will reduce by £2.75million and a review of administration processes.
“We are firmly committed to providing the communites of Cumbria with an affordable and realistic policing service. It is by us all working together to ensure that crime and disorder remains at the low levels that we have experienced in recent years.
Further information contact Joanne Thornborrow, Community Engagement Officer, at the Cumbria Police Authority office, Carleton Hall, Penrith CA10 2AU. Tel. (01768) 217416
Website: www.cumbriapoliceauthority.org.uk
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