Protesters interrupt Manchester meeting where council tax was increased

The police precept part of the council tax bill will go up by £10 for Band D properties from April – the maximum increase permitted by law next year.

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham defended the hike at a police, fire and crime panel meeting on Monday (January 31) saying it is the ‘right time’.

It comes as the force is still in special measures following a damning report by inspectors which found 80,000 crimes had not been recorded in 12 months.

But the meeting was temporarily suspended after protesters sat in the public gallery criticised the mayor for not consulting residents enough about the rise.

The protesters also spoke about ‘institutional racism’ in the police force and claimed some members of the public had not been allowed into the meeting.

What was said?

Dr Kerry Pimblott, who attended the meeting on behalf of the Northern Police Monitoring Project, said some protesters had signs – but they were removed.

She said: “It was palpable in the room that there was concern from members of the public that what was expressed in the consultation was not being reflected.”

Mr Burnham apologised that the ‘short’ public consultation only lasted 10 days.

In total, 1,096 people responded to the consultation, according to a report.

The Labour mayor conceded that only 23 % of those respondents supported the proposal to increase the police precept, while 30 pc wanted to freeze it.

But Mr Burnham – who offered to meet with the protesters – defended the move.

He said: “It’s a challenging time at the moment to consult on any increase and it’s obviously difficult to get support for any increase or raising of council tax.

“But having not given the police force the full increase last year and that causing a financial pressure that they’ve had to deal with, I do think it’s right this year to back them with the full increase.”

‘Going in the right direction’

The Greater Manchester mayor spoke of ‘green shoots’ which show that the police force is finally now moving in the right direction under new leadership.

He said the extra council tax revenue would fund the ‘transformation’ of the police contact centre and speed up response times to 999 and 101 calls.

Together with the central government policing grant, the increased funding from the precept would fund 438 additional police officers of which 60 would be dedicated to road safety freeing up officers to focus on public transport.

The funding would also allow the force to continue with the new Operation Avro days of action which see a ‘surge’ of officers and specially trained teams dealing with issues communities tell the force they want to see dealt with.

And it would also fund a community messaging system that neighbourhood policing teams would use to inform the public about what they are doing.

The panel unanimously agreed to the mayor’s proposal to increase the police precept which will cost an additional 55p per month for a Band A property – which is what 45 pc of council taxpayers in Greater Manchester would pay.

The panel also heard that a review of the problematic PoliceWorks part of the IOPS computer system is now complete and being ‘packaged’ up in a report which should be delivered to the mayor within the next few ‘weeks and days’.

The latest report from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary which follows a further visit last summer is also expected to be published shortly.

Chief constable Stephen Watson warned the panel it ‘won’t be good news’.

A further council tax rise of £12 for the mayor’s general budget has been proposed and is expected to be approved at another meeting in February.