POLICE chiefs and councillors from West Yorkshire will join forces with others across England and Wales to lobby MPs in Westminster over potentially huge cuts in service.
They aim to highlight the effects of a projected £350m cash shortfall, due to a cap on the council tax.
In private meetings taking place in Parliament, more than100 MPs will be told how pressure on budgets will combine next year with an edict from Whitehall to keep council tax levels to a minimum - causing a squeeze in funding that will threaten front-line police services. Representatives of West Yorkshire Police Authority will meet personally with local MPs to set out how the funding crises could hit local services in the county
Deputy Chief Constable Phil Brear said: "The last thing we want is a reduction in front-line policing, but with 5.7% funding needed, and 3% predicted, we will have to work very hard to find the necessary savings to protect these services.
"Without the necessary funding we won't be able to continue to grow the Force and move towards the Metropolitan Forces' average strength as quickly as in recent years. That would be disappointing considering the greatly improved performance that recent growth has contributed to."
All police authorities will have to find extra cash to meet new statutory and policy responsibilities; implement the government's police reform agenda; for pay inflation; forensic, IT and technological developments; and to fund a 12% rise in the cost of pensions as a result of mass officer recruitment in the 1970s.
Funding existing services, and meeting these added pressures, means that police authorities need at least a 5.7% increase from the Home Office. But indications are that funding will increase by only 3% for 2005/06. A cap on council tax rises to low single figures, would leave a £350m shortfall.
Clr Mark Burns- Williamson, who chairs West Yorkshire's Police Authority, warned that cuts in policing seemed inevitable.
"Central funding has fallen short of what we need in previous years, but we decided to make up the difference from local council tax.
"We can't continue to do this, because the public are getting fed up of rising council tax, and the government is threatening to cap increases. This means that without at least 5.7% funding from the government, cuts in police services may have to be made.
"The last 12 months has clearly demonstrated the link between increased resources and improved results. We are committed to achieving the latest targets, set out in the Government's three year strategy, to reduce crime by 15%."
