Max tax rise by non democratic Police Authority
What right to impose this when they’ve NOT been elected and have limited public accountability?
As someone who takes our democracy and the electoral accountability which goes with it very seriously I’m furious that Staffordshire Police Authority, which is not electorally accountable, have set a local tax increase only fractionally under the government’s legal maximum. If it wasn’t for that legal limit I’m sure it would have been even higher.
At the County, we’ve sweated blood to keep the council tax rise under inflation and the lowest increase in Staffordshire since 1993. Just 1.9% despite the problems we inherited from the previous Administration.
At the Police Authority, unelected magistrates and unelected ’appointees’ can impose local tax on the public in Staffordshire and there’s nothing that we, even with our winning electoral mandate, can do about it.
Setting tax without public accountability is unacceptable in 2010.
The first thing to be clear about is that the Police Authority IS NOT the police. They are different and seperate.
Police are operational and get on with the job of policing and the Police Authority sets local priorities and the budget and precept (the police bit of the council tax bill). The Police Authority is a bit like a normal council except that there’s no democratic public election. It’s a bit of a Club and most have been on it for years and years.
The only sign of any democracy are a few Staffordshire County Councillors and Stoke City Councillors who sit alongside the appointees/magistrates. But they include County Councillors from the old Labour Administration which was swept from power in June.
The fact is that because of a complicated formula which includes Stoke, decided nationally many years ago, the electoral mandate achieved after June’s Conservative landslide in Staffordshire means nothing as far as the Police Authority is concerned. It’s even more extraordinary because even Stoke is now Conservative led and that makes no difference either.
So, I’m bemused when I look at the electoral map how the tax setting and leadership of Staffordshire Police Authority is in the hands of unelected individuals and the few remaining Labour politicians.
The result of all this is that despite elected Conservatives opposing the recent tax rise at the Police Authority it was voted through by unelected appointees, the magistrates and opposition Labour politicians.
Oh, and by the way, they stuffed a cool couple of million pounds back into their coffers instead of using it to keep the local tax down.
Take a look at the electoral map and tell me please how Labour County Councillors hold the balance of power with unelected people. Democracy in Action… I don’t think so!
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We live in an undemocratic country.We go to war without moral public support, we have all these bodies which spend billions in public money with, as you say, no accountability of note and numerous other areas which rather underpin the collapse in electoral interaction. I must admit I hadn’t even realised there was a police authority so what does that say about accountability? The police seem happy to send reams of publicity out saying how tremendous they are and it leads me to think they should divert some of that self promotion to let people no about this body you write about. The problem with that of course is if they did, and it’s as you suggest in your blog Matthew, people would be outraged. I’m no big fan of local government but as has been said before it’s the best option we’ve got other than everything being centalised. I hope your comments gain some traction and the existance of this body becomes more widely known. I write a piece in a local publication and will raise this issue once I’ve researched it more. Excellent website you have. Perhaps there’s some hope after all!
I had assumed that the members of this body were elected. When, how and by whom are they appointed?
I couldn’t agree more with the sentiments expressed. One of the most upsetting issues surrounding this ‘tax increase’ is that extra funds will go to support the ever increasing burden of police pensions, not to supporting the hiring of extra police officers.
Bob, no, the Police Authority is not an elected body. There are though, 9 representatives who are councillors… 7 from the County and 2 from Stoke which is based on population, the County being far bigger.
Because of the nationally set formula, 4 of the 9 councillors are opposition ones (2 Labour, 1 Ind & 1 LibDem) so there are only 5 Conservatives out of the 17 total on the Police Authority despite Conservatives controlling Staffordshire with a landslide last June.
The 2 magistrates are appointed by Government and the 6 other appointments were made by the previous Police Authority which was Labour led.
Cynics might think there’s a political aspect to those 6 appointments.
I believe that the will of the Police Authority should be based on the electoral will of the people. It’s not. Staffordshire (and Stoke for that matter) is Conservative led (the County by 49 to 13) but at the Police Authority Conservatives usually lose votes by 12 to 5. Doesn’t seem democratic to me!
And is it right also that magistrates sit on the PA, setting policy, and then judge those who appear before them arrested by the police?
And remember, no election can change this or decisions made… hence a local tax hike the biggest (by far) elected party for Staffordshire oppose.
This seems ridiculous. If your party won so convincingly in the election I don’t see how democracy can ever woork if it means nothing in relation to policing which is a major issue. I am even more surprised that we have tax raised by people who we’ve never voted for. I’m quite troubled by this and had never even heard of this police body who are responsible. We should do something about this.
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