‘Serious concerns’ as Northants Police did not receive any developer money in last year
The police, fire and crime commissioner wants to raise the precept for policing and fire services, but it has come to light the services have not had developer cash as expected.
By Sarah Ward
Northamptonshire Police has not received any funding from developers as expected, leading the police, fire and crime commissioner to have ‘serious concerns’.
The situation was revealed at the police, fire and crime panel yesterday as the panel scrutinised the proposal to increase the amount the Northants public pays for fire and police services by up to £27 per year (for a band d household).
Commissioner Danielle Stone, said the extra increase would only allow for a ‘status quo’ service, and that for the extra funds residents would only receive next financial year what they currently receive, but vice chair of the panel Carolyn Kus pointed out the lack of money coming forward from developers.
When significant housing developments are approved, local authorities, as the planning authority agree 106 contributions, which are supposed to be paid by developers to help alleviate the extra impact on local services by the resulting population increase. This is allocated to services such as education, health and public services. The money is supposed to be monitored and collected by the local authorities and then distributed.
Carolyn Kus said:
“I find that astonishing, [considering] the amount of building and development that’s going off in Northamptonshire, that you have had nothing, zilch, development monies. I think that’s something that needs to be looked at at some point, because I think there should be something coming in. The increasing population would suggest there should be some money coming into the service to enable police and fire to actually increase.”
Labour’s Danielle Stone responded:
“It’s a really serious concern of mine. It is something that we are taking to the police accountability board because I am not satisfied at all. You know that we have had all this huge development and we’ve not got any CIL (community Infrastructure levy] or any 106 money.
“One of the issues for the local authorities is when the unitaries were formed all the local intelligence about 106 funds was lost. I know that in the local authorities a huge amount of work has been undertaken by the finance teams to find out exactly where these 106 monies are, what they relate to and how it can be drawn down.
“I don’t know if that has had any impact on the policing context either, but it is something I will be scrutinising.”
Reform UK’s Cllr Craig Morris, said he had heard from a developer that councils were not drawing down 106 funds and said ‘that to me as an ex detective concerns me slightly - understatement of the year’.
Chair of the panel Mark Arnull, who is also the Reform UK leader of West Northamptonshire Council, said there is a ‘huge piece of work going on at WNC’ to reconcile what funds are in the bank and what is owed but it would not be concluded for another eleven months.
West Northamptonshire’s head legal officer Sarah Hall was at the meeting and said the council was currently ‘pulling all the information together to ensure that we have that really comprehensive understanding of exactly what money we are holding and where it can be used and applied.’
Green Party Cllr James Towns said 106 funding had also been questioned at North Northamptonshire Council and the authority was also in the process of giving greater visibility to where developer funding was.
The issue of the legal action against Northamptonshire Police by Londoner Nadine Buzzard Quashie was also raised, with Reform UK’s cllr Chris Kellett asking whether the legal costs would have an impact on the policing budget. As reported by NN Journal, more than £250,000 has already been incurred in legal costs, with significantly more sums expected.
The force’s chief finance officer Vaughan Ashcroft said £1.9m had been set aside for legal costs and there was also insurance.
Cllr Kellett’s fellow Reform UK councillor Vince Whitrow said he had spoken to residents who had told him they would be happy to pay the increase ‘however that comes with a price and that would be the resignation of both the chief constable and the police and crime commissioner.’
He said he would not pay the backing of the extra precept ‘to pay for other people’s mistakes’.
Cllr Andy Sims from Reform UK also said he had been ‘threatened with removal from the panel’ but did not give further details on by whom or why.
The panel approved a £15 per cent rise in the policing precept although some on the panel voted against and one abstained) and an increase of up to £12 for fire. The commissioner has applied to the home office for special dispensation to raise the fire precept above the allowed £5 limit, as she says the precept is the second lowest in the country and without the rise ‘serious cuts’ will need to be made. The government has not as yet approved the extra levy.
The total budget proposed for Northants Police in the upcoming 2026.27 financial year is £203m with 44 per cent of that raised by local taxes. The £12 band d increase on the fire precept would mean the fire service had a budget of £38m. With both increases the police force still needs to make savings next year of £3.5m and fire needs to make £1.2m in savings.
The real reason why PFCC is in real mess is because Stone is inept at her job. She created additional costs where there was no needs for it before. Councillors should really investigate and compare the cost of her office to others PFCC. What relevance if any do Dr Cust and Pauline Woodhouse (Independent member) bring to that panel? A lot of discussion surrounding 106 funding. However, during the eight years of Mold's tenure he made the same approach and the answers given was the same as before, in that, the "Deprivation" factor did not apply to Nirthamptonshire. Pauline Woodhouse made a long speech about cost of leaving pressure on strugling family, than, when the voting for the precept increase came she "abstained"? What does it say for her? Who exactly does she represent? because those same family will suffer even more because of her action. There was three Councillors who we should respect because they doing they very best to find out why this has been allowed to happen. They have put relevant questions about the huge debt that are accumulating and no Insurance will cover it.
You know a good way to avoid legal costs is to admit your mistakes and compensate fairly. You don't defend what you can't win