Cumbria Police Authority Budget Process
Every year Cumbria Police Authority sets its annual budget and the budget for policing services across the county. In total we spend around £100m every year, which mainly comes from government grants and council tax.
The Police Authority has the task of setting the annual budget in advance, and must make sure that the cost of providing police services sits within the income we expect to receive.
This year, we have to decide whether to take an extra grant from the Government in exchange for freezing the amount of council tax that each household in Cumbria pays.
On the face of it, this seems like a great idea, but the grant will only be paid to us for one year and the Police Authority would then need to try and recoup that money in following years by raising council tax more than usual.
This would create problems, as there is a limit to how much council tax can be raised every year, so if we accept the grant now, we may not be able to recoup that money in future years, which would mean that policing might have to be cut by up to £1million on top of the £18m we already have to save.
Police Authority members have a difficult choice to make, but they think that it is most important to make sure police services are protected. This would mean increasing Council Tax.
What does this mean for you?
If we don’t accept the government grant next year we will need to increase council tax in 2012/13 and we will need to decide how much the increase should be.
The amount of increase would depend on what band of council tax your property is in.
If we do accept the government grant next year, the police authority element of the council tax will be frozen for a year, meaning your council tax will remain the same in 2012/13. However, council tax would then potentially need to increase by a larger amount in 2013/14.
The Authority will be consulting on this subject during January at the following venues:
Tuesday 10 January 2012, 2 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. at Dunmail Park, Workington
Wednesday 11 January 2012 - 10 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. at Sainsburys, Penrith
Wednesday 11 January 2012 - 2 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. at Morrisons, Kendal
Thursday 12 January 2012 - 10 a.m. - 12.30 at The Lanes, Carlisle
Monday 16 January 2012 - 10.00 a.m. - 12.30 p.m. at Tesco, Whitehaven
Monday 16 January 2012 - 2 p.m. - 4.30 p.m. at Booths, Keswick
Wednesday 18 January 2012 - 2 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. at Tesco, Barrow in Furness.
In the meantime you can use our on-line budget survey where you can tell us how you think the money should be spent - here.
