Comments on: Max tax rise by non democratic Police Authority

By: Julia T from Lichfield area

Julia T from Lichfield area — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:09:17 +0000

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.

By: Matthew Ellis

Matthew Ellis — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:49:10 +0000

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.

By: Mike

Mike — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:36:46 +0000

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.

By: Bob Patchett

Bob Patchett — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:16:09 +0000

I had assumed that the members of this body were elected. When, how and by whom are they appointed?

By: Mr Peter J Barrow - North Staffordshire

Mr Peter J Barrow - North Staffordshire — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:52:19 +0000

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!