The majority of Kirklees council taxpayers will contribute an extra £1 a month towards policing from April.

The policing element of council tax, known as the police precept, was formally approved in West Yorkshire Police’s Crime Commissioner’s budget at a meeting last Friday.

The new budget sees a £12 annual increase, which equates to an extra £1 a month for residents in Band D properties.

However for most people in West Yorkshire the increase will be less than £10 a year or less than 80p per month, given that over 75% of properties are in Bands A,B and C.

The increase will fund the further recruitment of more than 140 police officers or staff, some of whom will be allocated to tackle key priority areas such as cyber crime, safeguarding and investigations.

Mark Burns-Williamson, West Yorkshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “The Government has imposed a further real terms cuts to our budget which equates to over £9m this year alone. This is despite already cutting our budget by roughly a third since 2010 at the cost of over 2,000 police jobs.

“This precept increase will ensure more resources will be allocated to strengthen neighbourhood policing and to tackle the priorities that matter to local people such as road safety, cyber crime, child sexual exploitation and domestic abuse to name a few.

“I will continue to work closely with the Chief Constable, West Yorkshire Police and our partners to ensure we invest wisely in key areas, increase collaboration and secure more efficiencies to help tackle the various and complex policing demands and keep our communities safe and feeling safe.”

Chief Constable Dee Collins said: “We are continuing to work hard to protect the most vulnerable in our local communities in the face of increasingly complex demand.

“Inevitably, those complex challenges not only require a different approach, they are also resource intensive, so I am determined that any additional officers and staff we can recruit are used as effectively and efficiently as possible, for the benefit of all our communities.

“The significant challenges we face include child sexual exploitation, cyber crime and organised crime. We must continually evolve to meet these challenging demands, while also reshaping the organisation and continuing our work to recruit a truly representative workforce.”