Alan Charles wanted to hear what you had to say, but only if you’d let him know within 9 days!
Derbyshire’s Labour Police and Crime Commissioner Alan Charles is proposing to increase the council tax for policing contribution by just less than 2%, an increase he can implement without consultation. Any more than 2% and he would have to call a referendum.
Alan Charles was quoted as saying “Anything less than this would result in a greater reduction in police officer numbers and affect the level of service that Derbyshire Constabulary is able to provide – something that nobody wants to happen.”
Whether this statement is true or not the people of Derbyshire should surely still have a say on this and, according to the official website of the Derbyshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Alan Charles did want to hear your views…but only if you completed a poorly advertised online survey that was only available to complete for 9 days!
High Peak Liberal Democrat PPC Stephen Worrall commented “Alan Charles claims he wants to know the views of High Peak residents on this proposed tax increase, but he made it so that the vast majority if us never knew any consultation was happening and made it so short that there was no time for any of us to let our friends and neighbours know about it.”
The survey closed today Sunday but you may yet have a chance to give your views. Stephen added “I only became aware of the consultation today but I have emailed the Police and Crime Commissioner for Derbyshire requesting that the survey be re-opened to give as many people as possible the chance to have a say“.
UPDATE: I received a reply from the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner informing me that the Consultation was kept opened until Monday lunchtime (an email I unfortunately did not see until after this deadline).
Additionally I have been informed that as the Commissioner had to present the Budget Report this afternoon (Tuesday) at 2pm at the Strategic Governance Board meeting it was not possible to keep the consultation open any longer.
Whilst this explains why the consultation had to end when it did it does not explain why it started so late and was advertised so poorly, something I gather the Glossop Gazette (http://glossopgazette.co.uk/) should be able to enlighten us on in the near future!
UPDATE: Thanks to the hard work of the Glossop Gazette we are getting closer to an answer on this issue (http://glossopgazette.co.uk/latest-news/1244-police-crime-commissioner-blasted-over-short-consultation-period) but there are still unanswered questions:
1) If the survey was open from January 5th (and I have no reason to doubt the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner) this doesn’t explain why it was not advertised (to the best of our knowledge) for 11 days?
2) If the Home Office informed the Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner of the grant proposals on 17th December then why did it take a whopping 19 days to put a very simple online survey up (and a further 11 days to let anyone know). Admittedly the Christmas period gives a little leeway here but there was still 5 working days before Christmas in which it could have gone up, days where the Glossop Gazette was still receiving press releases on other issues from them, so why was nothing done on this survey?