Issue - meetings

The Sussex Police and Crime Panel are meeting on 28 January 2022 to consider the Sussex Police Precept for 2022-23. This report provides the opportunity for Committee Members to express their views on the proposed precept.

Upon the invitation of the Chair, theGroup Head of Community Wellbeing presented the report which provided Committee Members the opportunity to express their views on the proposed uplift to the Sussex Police precept going to the Sussex Police and Crime Panel meeting on the 28 January 2022. This precept was unrelated to the Council’s own precept but discussion at this meeting afforded an opportunity for the Committee to provide feedback to the Chair who would be attending the Sussex Police and Crime Panel meeting at which the precept was to be considered.

The precept would support the following priorities:

·       Strengthen Local Policing

·       Relentless Disruption of Serious & Organised Crime

·       Support Victims & Safeguard the Vulnerable

TheGroup Head of Community Wellbeing explained that it was proposed to increase the Band D precept by £10 from £214.91 to £224.91 for 2022/23, equivalent to 19p per week or 83p per month. The report referred to the consultation undertaken by Sussex Police over the course of a year with some 9,800 public responses (representing 0.6% of the population) with 81 Town and Parish Councils participating in focus groups.  Of the 2,148 who participated in the Priorities and Precept survey, 67% supported an 83p a month increase in the precept as did 60% of the participating Town and Parish Councils.

The Police and Crime Commissioner stated in her report, circulated as a supplementary pack to the Committee, that a £10 precept uplift would be essential so that Sussex Police could meet the increased costs of inflation, pay, the pandemic and preserve the improvements in capacity, visibility and accessibility built up since 2018, and to meet the target to recruit an extra 250 police officers by 2022/23.

Members then took part in a full debate on the item where a number of points were raised including:

·       the lack of police visibility and the need to increase this and communication with the public across the District

·       changes to the crime landscape and the need to change how this was reported, with implications for and relations to policing levels

·       the benefits of community-based focus groups

·       the limited response of the consultation and whether more needed to be done to engage with the community

·       figures relating to wait times when calling the police and the resourcing of this service

·       support for the 101 service and positive experiences with it

The Committee then noted the report.