MORE officers and staff will be added to Surrey Police over the next year after Police and Crime Commissioner David Munro’s proposed council tax precept rise was approved last week.

The PCC’s suggested 3.83% increase for the policing element of the council tax was given the green light by the county’s Police and Crime Panel.

It means that Surrey Police will be able to invest in further officer and staff posts to add to the 78 police officers that have been promised by government as Surrey’s initial share of the national programme to recruit 20,000.

In total, the combined funding will allow the force to add around 100 police officer posts and 50 staff roles to its establishment during 2020-21. The precept element of the combined funding accounts for 22 new police officers, on top of the 78 from government.

This is in addition to the extra 79 officers and frontline staff paid for by last year’s precept rise, which also prevented the loss of 25 other posts. Those recruits will all be in post or doing their training by May this year.

The PCC’s office carried out a public consultation throughout January in which over 3,100 respondents answered a survey with their views on either a 2% increase in line with inflation or a 5% increase to further invest in more officers and staff.

That 5% figure was adjusted to 3.83% in late January to reflect the maximum level the government will allow PCCs to raise as part of this year’s police settlement – the announcement of which was delayed due to the General Election.

More than 60% of those who responded supported the larger increase.

Mr Munro said: “The combination of this year’s precept and the officer uplift promised by government means Surrey Police can strengthen their service by 150 officers and staff over the next year.

“After a decade where police resources have been stretched to the limit this is really good news for Surrey, meaning we can put more officers back into our communities and tackle those issues that matter to our residents."

For the full story get the 13 February edition of the News & Mail