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04
Feb 2023
North Yorkshire Police to balance books by leaving 120 posts vacant
North Yorkshire's Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has revealed a plan to leave more than 120 jobs vacant this year to balance the books.
Zoe Metcalfe, the Conservative commissioner, will ask a panel of North Yorkshire and York councillors on Monday to consider increasing the force’s council tax demand by 4.99%, which would amount to £14.03 extra for the average band D household.
The band D £295.08 demand would represents an average rise of more than £90 in the amount residents are obliged to pay North Yorkshire Police to cover the cost of the police service not paid for by central government.
Under the proposal, North Yorkshire taxpayers would be contributing 45% of their police force’s £191m income. In contrast Northumberland residents’ contribution only equates to 19.3% of their force’s funding.
Of 2,343 responses from residents over the proposed police budget, some 55% said they would be prepared to pay up to £5.60 more – an increase of up to 1.99%.
Nevertheless, the commissioner’s report concludes there is “significant support from the public for an increase of at least £10”.
However, a report by the commissioner to the panel also highlights that North Yorkshire has among the highest policing precept levels in England and Wales but will need ro make £8.2m of savings in the coming year to balance the books.
The report states:
The proposed precept increase will also be used for long-awaited service improvements, such as £1.9m extra to improve 999 emergency call handling times, 101 call handling time, and expand means of the public contacting police.
The report states:
Read More:
- Fewer than half of 999 calls in North Yorkshire being answered on time
- North Yorkshire has lowest IOPC complaints rate of all police forces
Rising cost of policing
Costs facing the force are expected to increase by £18m, mainly due to pay rises and inflation.
With a £1.5m injection it is proposed to boost frontline uniformed response teams, which will see the number of officers rise to 1,645.
Since 2001, the number of response offices in the City, County and Coastal Command units has risen significantly, from 87, 142 and 96 to 146, 163 and 105 respectively.
The report says due to the labour market crisis, some 50 Police Community Support Officers posts “have been unable to be filled despite recruitment efforts”, and will remain unfilled this year to save £2m, particularly as the force already employs the highest proportion of PCSOs compared to other staff in England.
To cut costs by another £1.2m it is proposed the force will allow non-officer staff vacancies rise from 50 to 74.
Yvette Cooper MP, Labour's shadow home secretary, raised North Yorkshire Police's proposal in the House of Commons.
Labour's Yvette Cooper, shadow home secretary, raised North Yorkshire Police's proposal to leave 120 vacancies unfilled in the House of Commons on Tuesday (January 31).
She said the move was a reflection of increasingly fewer police staff across the country.
Ms Cooper said:
Meanwhile, the report states extra resources are needed to cope with increased demands on areas such as child protection, domestic violence and safeguarding the most vulnerable, as the need for more officers to investigate burglaries, robberies, and serious violence has become plain.
The report states:
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