By Tash Shifrin
4 December 2009
Surrey Police Authority will discuss plans to close police stations and relocate officers to council buildings such as libraries to save money.
The authority faces financial difficulties after its precept was capped for the second year running in March.
It will discuss the radical location-sharing proposals, made by Surrey chief constable Mark Rowley, at its December 10 meeting. This is part of its wider plans to save money while putting 200 more frontline officers on the streets.
The plan would allow the force to replace ‘some old and expensive police buildings’, saving millions of pounds, the force claimed. Surrey police have piloted the use of council buildings in Woking and Addlestone.
The move came as Home Secretary Alan Johnson outlined government proposals aimed at saving £545m a year from police budgets nationally by 2014 in a December 2 white paper. Ministers aim to make savings of at least £100m from 2010/11.
Surrey police authority chair Peter Williams told Public Finance: ‘Today Surrey receives one of the lowest levels of central funding for policing in the country, and we have seen this decrease from £96 per head of population in 1996 to £93 per head today.
‘Our other income stream, council tax, is strictly limited by capping rules. We have had to undertake difficult changes, including job cuts, to live within our means.’
The authority had asked Rowley to consider ‘all the options – no matter how radical – for protecting our frontline strength from cuts’, he said. An outline business case to determine whether the plans were viable would be followed by consultation.
A spokesman for Surrey County Council said it welcomed the proposals and confirmed that libraries were among the buildings likely to house police officers.
In the foreword to his white paper, Johnson said the financial climate demanded ‘more urgent and radical action to squeeze out unnecessary costs, raise productivity and ensure that we continue to focus on frontline delivery’.
Savings would include at least £70m a year on police overtime and £75m from rationalising back-office services by 2013/14.
4 December 2009
Surrey Police Authority will discuss plans to close police stations and relocate officers to council buildings such as libraries to save money.
The authority faces financial difficulties after its precept was capped for the second year running in March.
It will discuss the radical location-sharing proposals, made by Surrey chief constable Mark Rowley, at its December 10 meeting. This is part of its wider plans to save money while putting 200 more frontline officers on the streets.
The plan would allow the force to replace ‘some old and expensive police buildings’, saving millions of pounds, the force claimed. Surrey police have piloted the use of council buildings in Woking and Addlestone.
The move came as Home Secretary Alan Johnson outlined government proposals aimed at saving £545m a year from police budgets nationally by 2014 in a December 2 white paper. Ministers aim to make savings of at least £100m from 2010/11.
Surrey police authority chair Peter Williams told Public Finance: ‘Today Surrey receives one of the lowest levels of central funding for policing in the country, and we have seen this decrease from £96 per head of population in 1996 to £93 per head today.
‘Our other income stream, council tax, is strictly limited by capping rules. We have had to undertake difficult changes, including job cuts, to live within our means.’
The authority had asked Rowley to consider ‘all the options – no matter how radical – for protecting our frontline strength from cuts’, he said. An outline business case to determine whether the plans were viable would be followed by consultation.
A spokesman for Surrey County Council said it welcomed the proposals and confirmed that libraries were among the buildings likely to house police officers.
In the foreword to his white paper, Johnson said the financial climate demanded ‘more urgent and radical action to squeeze out unnecessary costs, raise productivity and ensure that we continue to focus on frontline delivery’.
Savings would include at least £70m a year on police overtime and £75m from rationalising back-office services by 2013/14.
