Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods – 4 percent council tax hike due to political posturing on policing.
Labour MP, Dr Roberta Blackman-Woods, confronted Nick Clegg when he arrived at Durham railway station, with apparent fury. The PCS union claimed that Liberal Democrat plans for policing would cost white collar jobs in the Durham passport office if they were implemented pledging to reverse cuts in frontline officers and add 3,000 policemen across the country over five years, by scraping the fiasco that is the national identity card scheme. Roberta Blackman Woods has been a cheerleader for the ID card scheme dismissing any opposer’s as scaremongering, how ironic then she takes part in it gleefully when it comes to saving her own skin – after all she has a majority of less than 3,000.
Perhaps she suffers from a bit of amnesia when it comes to policing in Durham?
“I am grateful for the opportunity to raise specific issues relating to the funding of the Durham constabulary. Will my hon. Friend the Minister acknowledge that that constabulary is facing particular problems with its budget over the next two years, and that substantial cuts in front-line services are likely to occur unless urgent action is taken by the Department to address the problems?
There is particular concern about pensions and how they are funded, not least because Durham has had an historically low level based budget. I shall demonstrate that by referring to a recent communication between the Durham constabulary and my hon. Friend Mr. Jones. It is said that the funding gap for the authority, given a 5 per cent. increase in the council tax precept, will be £6 million in 2006–07, rising to £7 million and then £8 million in 2007–08 and 2008–09 respectively. We can use some reserves in the short term to try to close that gap, but we are looking to reduce our base budget by £8 million over the next three years. That will impact on the performance of the force as it will require a reduction in the number of police officers and police community support officers. Overtime will also be reduced as well as the number of civilian staff, leading to de-civilianisation. In addition, there will be a scaling down of support services. Clearly, we do not wish to see such consequences.
Can the Minister give reassurance to my constituents that the gains that have been made across the county in terms of increased police numbers and a reduction in crime levels will not be jeopardised by a failure to take action to solve the current funding problem?”
I personally would have thought that protecting the frontline of policing for her constituents would be more important than her white elephant and cynical vote winning as Labour lose their clutch on the region, but then when have Labour MP’s ever fought for Durham’s interests?
Update 27/2/2010: PEOPLE in the region will pay four per cent more for their police force from April. Durham Police Authority, the parent body of Durham Police approved a 3.99 per cent rise in its council tax levy on Wednesday. Its overall budget will rise by 2.9 per cent to £122.93m, but taxpayers face a steeper tax hike because the Government’s annual police grant will rise by only 2.5 per cent.
It seems that Dr Blackman-Wood’s begging for more money in Parliament came to nothing, and because of her insistence on sticking to a now discredited policy her constituents must now pay 4 percent more in council tax. Given the state of the North-Eastern eeconomy, and the social issues it faces this is a hike the people here can ill afford. When asked to comment on her contradiction there was no reply from her office.