More bobbies for Atherstone will cost council taxpayers 'extra pennies' as PCC urges funds for police are 'spent wisely'

At least eight extra pairs of police boots will be patrolling the streets of Atherstone and district in the coming year after a Tory-led government finally reverses a decade of austerity measures inflicted on the justice system.

The area will see a rise in bobbies on the beat, a six-strong new rural crime team exclusively for the north of Warwickshire and major improvements in the infrastructure and supporting services to the county force – with an additional cost to local taxpayers of less than 3p a day on average.

But despite the biggest police recruitment drive in decades following the September pledge by Prime Minister Boris Johnson to increase officer numbers by 20,000 over the next three years, Tory police and crime commissioner Philip Seccombe is still crying "foul" over central government's funding formula for law enforcement.

The Warwickshire PCC, who saw the Police and Crime Panel usher in his budget proposals for 41 extra officers in the next 12 months at an extra cost of £9.99 a year through the Police Precept, believes the Home Office and Treasury are shortchanging rural forces like Warwickshire – Britain's smallest regional unit.

Mr Seccombe said: "It is essential that taxpayers can see that their money is being spent wisely and is delivering real improvements to the services they receive, so this is something I will be carefully overseeing.

"I will also continue to argue the case with ministers that the current formula which decides how much of the central government funding each force receives is unfair to smaller rural forces.

"It also cannot be right that council taxpayers in other parts of the country pay less for policing than in Warwickshire and yet are able to fund more officers per head of population.

"I hope this will be addressed with reforms to the funding formula and that the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review can also provide longer term certainty for police finances than the current single-year settlements provide."

The uplift in manpower and resources for Warwickshire Police, which is good news for Atherstone and district, includes 10 extra patrol officers (five based in the north of the county, five in the south) to respond to 101 and 999 emergency calls; an additional 13 detectives to a specialist team looking at child abuse, trafficking and exploitation; 12 more uniformed firearms and roads policing officers with the establishment of a Warwickshire-based and focused firearms licensing team at Leek Wootton; and an expanded rural crime team – doubling the number of officers to 12 – to allow a separate north and south team to be created and divided equally between the two.

The budget proposals, unanimously supported by the panel, will also mean major improvements in the infrastructure of the force, including investment in IT systems and supporting services, to ensure officers have the best possible support to be effective and efficient when dealing with incidents and protecting people from harm, added Mr Seccombe.

The police precept element costs will see the yearly charge for band A council taxpayers in Atherstone rise by around £7 from £151.99 in the current financial year to £158.65 in 2020/21. Band H residents will have to find an extra £20 for their bills – up from £455.96 to £475.94.

Policing the length and breadth of England and Wales has not forgotten the 10 years of falling officer numbers – some 20,000 down from 143,760 in 2009 to 123,171 last year.

Although Warwickshire has seen a dramatic rise in numbers from 817 in 2019 to more than 1,000 now – that 2020 figure is only marginally better than the 973 total in 2009. Neighbouring Leicestershire fell by 21 per cent between 2009 and last year – from 2,317 officers to 1,829.

Last month National Police Chiefs' Council chairman Martin Hewitt warned the promise of 20,000 extra officers nationwide won't tackle rising crime rates and failing prosecutions – without further investment.

Mr Hewitt said the depth of budget cuts to policing had put the service's "core contract" with the British public at risk, forcing residents in some towns to set up their own patrols.

The NPCC chairman said: "Bringing in the 20,000 is not the answer to all the challenges we have around policing.

"The challenges we face more broadly as law enforcement are not simply about the number of officers.

"People need to see that the system is protecting them and is dealing appropriately with people who offend but the equation between our resources and the demands being placed on us have been getting harder and harder to square."

New constables would not immediately solve shortages in detectives and more senior ranks, he added.