Since 2010 the government has cut the policing budget by roughly 30% at the cost of over 2,000 police jobs here in West Yorkshire.
Last year the PCC was able to protect the current number of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) and start recruiting an extra 254 police officers, but there is still a long way to go to rebuild policing numbers to protect our communities.
The government have now provided information about how much money will be put into West Yorkshire for policing and community safety in 2017/18. This represents a further cut of 1.4% which equates to £4.17million.
Mark is asking the public to complete the survey to get views on a possible increase in local funding through the police element of the council tax to offset the cut from government and continue the re-building of police here in West Yorkshire.
Mark Burns-Williamson said: “Protecting visible frontline policing is a key priority for me and is raised by communities very often. By increasing the police element of your council tax by just 1-2p a week, I could help recruit more police officers and further protect PCSO numbers over the next 12 months to keep West Yorkshire safe and feeling safe.
“However, I know finances are tight and before I make any decisions, I want to know what you think. Your views are important to me and if you could spare some time to fill in this short survey I would be extremely grateful.”
To complete the survey visit http://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/
The closing date for responses is 20th January 2017.
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