Police tax freeze opposed (From York Press)

Police tax freeze opposed

11:12am Friday 15th February 2013 in News

YORK’S ruling council group has said it will vote against plans to freeze the police’s portion of North Yorkshire council tax bills.

The region’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Julia Mulligan, has said she does not intend to raise the police precept for 2013/14, accepting a £618,000 Government grant instead.

But North Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Panel can veto any of the Commissioner’s proposals, and City of York Council’s Labour councillors on the panel said they would vote for a “small increase” to help maintain frontline police numbers.

Hull Road councillor Fiona Fitzpatrick, a panel member, said: “Given the many officers York and North Yorkshire has already lost since 2010, we cannot support the Commissioner’s decision to comply with the Government and impose a freeze which will remove even more frontline officers from our streets.”

Labour has said it will support freezing the council tax fire precept. Coun Ken King, a member of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, said “good budgeting” in previous years and an adequate level of cash reserves meant the region’s fire service could withstand a year’s freeze. But he said: “We will have to look at the situation again very closely in the next couple of years, as officers are forecasting significant pressures in the 2015/16 budget.”