Letter from local Liberal Democrats supporting Surrey Police

A strongly worded letter has been sent by local Liberal Democrats to the Government urging them NOT to cap the 2009/2010 Surrey Police Authority budget as it will inevitably lead to cuts in frontline services.

A copy of the letter is shown below:

The Rt Hon John Denham MP

Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government

Eland House, Bressenden Place, London SW1E 5DU

Dear Mr Denham

Re: Proposed 2009/10 budget capping of Surrey Police Authority

We the undersigned are writing on behalf of the 90,000 residents of the Borough of Spelthorne to urge you NOT to cap the Surrey Police Authority budget for the year 2009/2010.

Surrey as one of the wealthiest counties in the United Kingdom already pays its fair share of taxes yet it is consistently starved of central government grant towards the payment of essential services including the Surrey Police force.

To add insult to injury you are now proposing that the Surrey Police Authority asks local Councils to re-bill Surrey taxpayers in order to set a reduced council tax. For a band D property the council tax would be reduced by just £3.18. That equates to 6 pence per week.

According to the Surrey Police Authority this re-billing exercise will cost around £1.2 million in order to return £1.6million to Surrey households. Therefore Surrey Police stands to lose £2.8 million from its original 2009/10 budget and as a consequence up to fifty frontline police posts are under threat.

Given that the Government has consistently proclaimed "Investment not cuts" perhaps you would explain to us, as residents of Surrey, the rationale behind your decision to inflict these police cuts on our county.

We can only hope that common sense will prevail.

Yours sincerely

Mark Chapman, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Spokesperson for Spelthorne

Councillor Colin Strong, Liberal Democrat, Leader of the Opposition Spelthorne Borough Council

Copy sent to the Prime Minister, The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP