Government police funding claims are “sheer and shameless dishonesty”

Claims by the Conservative Government that they are giving North Wales Police an extra £9.4 million in funding have been described as “sheer and shameless dishonesty”.

The region’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones, said the attempt by Home Secretary Priti Patel to hoodwink the public was disgraceful and needed to be exposed.

It was clear, he said, that all Conservative MPs across England and Wales had been sent a template press release so that they could “recycle Central Office rubbish”.

At least two of the party’s North Wales MPs, James Davies in the Vale of Clwyd and Sarah Atherton in Wrexham, had “filled in the blanks” and sent it out as if they had written it themselves.

The truth of the matter, according to Mr Jones, was that the Tory Government had allocated £4.3 million towards recruiting an extra 61 officers in North Wales, of which over £1m is conditional on achieving that target.

But that palled into insignificance compared to the £33 million a year cuts inflicted on North Wales Police as a result of Conservative austerity cuts since 2010.

What the press release failed to reveal was that the rest of the figure of £9.4 million figure was supposed to be made up by Council Tax payers in North Wales as part of their policing precept payments.

Mr Jones, a former police officer, said: “They are trying to give the impression that Council Tax increases from Police and Crime Commissioners are part of a fictitious boost in Government funding

“Even the £4.3 million is not new money. It is part of the funding previously promised  to recruit 20,000 more officers in England and Wales.

“What they conveniently did not point out is that this money does not go anywhere near making up for the £33 million ripped from the North Wales Police budget since 2010.

“The alleged increase in funding is based on their assumption of £15 council tax increase, when the North Wales Police and Crime Panel agree the annual precept in February.

“I am in the process of consulting the people of North Wales about their preferred policing priorities and the increase in precept that they would find acceptable.

“For the UK Government to jump the gun like this is arrogant and unacceptable while the way they have gone about trying to trick the public into believing they are giving North Wales an extra £9.4 million is sheer and shameless dishonesty – smoke and mirrors of the worst kind.  In fact, more than half the money would come from local taxation via the precept.

“Given the savage scale of the cuts since 2010, the force has done a remarkable job in doing more with a lot less money.

“Recent years have seen ever increasing demands on policing with new and emerging crimes like county lines drugs gangs, modern slavery, online fraud and child sexual exploitation.

“This year that has increase in demand has been compounded by the unique and onerous challenges caused by the Coronavirus pandemic.

“The good people of North Wales, along with our rank and file police officers and staff who do such a brilliant job in difficult circumstances – often putting their lives on the line – deserve a lot better than this shabby attempt to pull the wool over their eyes.“

Pictured - North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones.