Will policing improve after council tax rise?

There was quite a bit in your paper recently from West Sussex County Council leader Louise Goldsmith attempting to justify the increase in council tax for the coming year.
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Included in that was the amount set aside for the Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner, which we were led to believe would be £28 per household.

I thought that was excessive and wrote to Katy Bourne. Of course, I got a reply from one of her minions who related the £28 and explained how it would be spent.

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However, you can imagine my shock when the council tax bill dropped through the letter box and I read that it’s not £28 but a massive £168.81 or 14.5 per cent! That is on top of the £147.48 last year which was an increase of 7.8 per cent on 2017/18.

I repeat what I said to Katy Bourne: how does she think the taxpayers can afford such an increase? No one is going to get anything like a 14.5 per cent increase in their pay or pension. The reply I received said: “The PCC recognises that any increase in taxation at any level will be challenging for some of our residents and it is therefore not a decision that she takes lightly.”

I would suggest it is almost everyone who will feel the brunt and will have to make sacrifices to find the extra money.

In my view there has not been any improvement in the degree of policing since last year – for all that extra money are we going to see anything changing?

James Smith

Sackville Way, Broadwater

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