Crime commissioner says force needs extra funding
Lincolnshire Police needs an additional £15m of government funding in order to deliver the service, the county's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) has said.
Marc Jones, who was recently re-elected for a third term, has repeatedly claimed the force is one of the worst funded in the country per resident.
He has also called for the police funding formula to be updated, saying it is based on outdated population figures.
A Home Office spokesperson said Lincolnshire Police’s funding was set to be increased by up to £9.2m in 2024-25.
Mr Jones issued his appeal following a Police & Crime Panel meeting at Lincolnshire County Council on Friday, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) .
He said he thought the current funding formula for police forces in England and Wales was out of date because it used population statistics from 2013 and demographics such as the number of pubs per square mile.
Mr Jones also said that pay rises and increases in employer contributions to pensions had created an estimated £4m gap in his base budget, which was being filled with their spending reserves.
He said: “It’s been a constant theme of Lincolnshire Police that when we’re putting together the medium-term financial plans, there is usually an element of the budget that we have to fill with spending reserves, and that continues to be the case.
“The only other way I can fill that gap is by reducing the service, and obviously we’ve not needed to do that. We continue to battle to maintain the service we’ve got.”
He said that an extra £10m to 15m was “about the equivalent to what it costs to police the Notting Hill Carnival every year for one weekend”.
He said the extra funding would enable him to provide a “sustainable force delivering the things we need to keep the public safe".
The Home Office said that Lincolnshire police funding would be "up to £164.3m in 2024-25'" which they said was an increase of up to £9.2 million on the previous year
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