15 March 2002
Members of the council's Cabinet reacted with dismay to the figure and said that it undermined their own attempts to keep council tax rises to a minimum.
Cleveland's police force issues precepts to four local authorities, another of which, Hartlepool council, has also expressed its dissatisfaction with the annual claim.
A spokesman for Stockton council told Public Finance that members had worked hard to keep the authority's council tax rise 'to a bare minimum' of 4.5%, despite severe pressures. He added that the police precept would now mean that council taxpayers faced an overall rise of almost 7%.
The Band D police authority charge in Stockton has risen from £46.02 to £96.13 in the past five years. Council leader Bob Gibson described the police authority's demands as 'disproportionate'.
'We will make it clear to Mr Blunkett that there is no reason why the police authority cannot follow our lead by planning its budgets over three or four years in advance,' he added.
But the chair of the Cleveland Police Authority, Cllr Ken Walker, said the precept merely underlined the scale of the financial challenges faced by modern police forces. He welcomed the possibility of a 'truly independent' review by the Home Office.
'I want the public to be assured that the wider claims which some individuals and organisations make are totally unjustified. We have nothing to fear from such a review,' he said.
PFmar2002
