The North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner, Arfon Jones, is asking for your views on how much you are prepared to pay for policing the region, to help him set the budget for 2018/19.

Since 2011/12, government grant to police force areas has decreased significantly and, in real terms, North Wales Police is currently saving £30m a year compared with 2010/11.

The Medium Term Financial Plan published in January 2017 assumed a council tax increase of 2.5%, which would require cuts of £2.9m in 2018/19 (in addition to the cuts already made).

The Home Office provides about 50% of the total cost towards the police budget – The rest comes from council tax. The Police and Crime Commissioner determines the amount of funding to be raised through the council tax, known as the Police Precept, which is included on the council tax demand you receive from your local council.

Last year the precept was set at 3.79%, the lowest increase in Wales. Each 1% increase in council tax means an additional £0.7m which can be used to offset cuts in government grants, reduce the need for cuts and to improve services.

To put this into context, a band D household in north Wales currently pays £249.21 per year towards police services. A 5% increase would mean an additional £12.42 a year (24p per week).

Mr Jones said: “We do face a twin threat of increasingly diverse crime driven by the internet and tighter budgets.

“But first we have to arrive at a precept so we know how much money we have and, as last year, I will be asking the people of North Wales what they are prepared to pay for.

“In a democracy we have to trust people and last year the results of the survey showed that a majority, 63% of almost 1,000 who took part, were in favour of an increase of 5% or more.

“In the event we didn’t have to go that high but having that evidence of public support was very helpful when I had make my case for the Police and Crime Plan.”

You can complete the online survey below, responses are required by 15/01/2018

http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/3991369/North-Wales-Precept-Survey-2018-19