Plans to recruit 70 more officers this year to Avon and Somerset Police have been thrown into doubt after councillors vetoed a £15 council tax increase.
Police and crime panel members said the force could not justify growth when residents are facing “heartbreaking” financial strain from the Covid-19 pandemic and councils are making cuts.
Chief constable Andy Marsh wanted the extra cash for officers to tackle the “tsunami” of sexual offences that followed “savage” cuts in the austerity years, as well as better management of offenders and more proactive policing.
He previously promised that residents would see a difference from the £15 hike and warned that the force risked “losing momentum” without it.
Police and crime commissioner Sue Mountstevens now has a matter of weeks to present a reduced budget but panel members have used their only chance to veto it.
Making his case to panel members on 4th February, chief constable Marsh said: “We had seven years of austerity. The cuts went much too far.
“We know we’ve got difficult times ahead. If we turn the tap off we won’t get near repairing the damage.
“If we don’t make this increase now, the legacy will live for many years.”
He added: “Through austerity, some of the areas we cut the most were prevention, early intervention, rape and sexual offences – we have had a tsunami of that sort of crime – and proactivity. Responding when people call you out is not how you make a safe community.
“The government have announced an uplift of 20,000 officers. If the precept doesn’t increase by £15, that will not happen in Avon and Somerset.
“If we don’t increase by 70 officers, I would take the pruners to some of the projected growth.
“I don’t believe the growth is extravagant. It will be used to protect communities.”
Avon and Somerset Police gets 60 per cent of its funding from government and 40 per cent from council tax.
Ms Mountstevens said the 6.6 per cent increase – £15 for band D properties – was difficult when households were struggling but funding from government had not kept pace with inflation, so the burden fell on council tax payers.
She said the extra funding would allow the force to reinstate specialist teams to tackle rape, sexual abuse, child abuse and child sexual exploitation.
The budget also proposed offender management hubs in all five local authority areas and improved investigative capacity.
Ms Mountstevens told the panel in December a rise of less than five per cent would result in a cut in staff, and the equivalent of 64 PCSOs.
Councillor Andy Wait sits on Bath and North East Somerset Council, which is set to charge residents £70 more from April. Local authorities across Avon and Somerset are making similar decisions.
“In my council we have massive cuts because of Covid,” said Cllr Wait. “We’re talking about across the board precept rises. I can’t see any reason why the police should be given a greater rise than everyone else.
“They have been treated very generously over the last three years. I’m not convinced there aren’t savings to be made.”
North Somerset councillor Roz Willis said she had received some “heartbreaking” calls from residents warning they face a “cliff edge”.
Proposing the veto, Sedgemoor councillor Janet Keen said it would be “quite wrong” if one body was seen as more important than another.
Eleven members voted in favour and one abstained.
A revised budget will have to be agreed in the coming weeks.
Stephen Sumner, Local Democracy Reporter
