Tax pays for extra officers (From Free Press Series)

Tax pays for extra officers

BOBBIES are going back on the beat.

Monmouthshire will be getting nine extra officers whose main duty will be to reduce low-level crime in communities.

There will be a total of 66 new PCs taken on in Gwent in the autumn, funded by a rise in the police council tax bill of 16.81 percent. The bill will be added to the council tax bill sent out to households from April.

They will work across the county in areas such as Abergavenny, Caerwent and Mathern, Chepstow and Llantilio Crossenny.

Bryan Davies, deputy chief constable of Gwent Police, said: "We had to do something because we needed to satisfy some of the concerns raised at the public consultation meetings.

"This means more bobbies on the beat. Officers will be working in the community addressing real community issues - things like nuisance behaviour, vandalism, graffiti."

Police held a series of public meetings late last year. The overwhelming finding was that people wanted more visible, local police - and they were willing to pay for them.

"That got us thinking about what needed to be done," said Mr Davies.

"The police authority agreed they would give us 50 percent of the resource needed to place one ward manager in each of the 131 wards in Gwent.

"There will be 66 this year and we hope the police authority will sanction another rise in police tax next year to pay for the rest.

"The success will be the selling point. We are sticking our heads above the parapet with this. The communities have said this is what they want so we are giving it to them."

Each ward manager will be in position for at least three years. Their duties will include liaising with community groups, gathering intelligence at street level and attending local meetings.