THE Sussex Police and Crime Commissioner’s latest weekly report was a case of good news/bad news.

Mrs Bourne stated that she knows that officer visibility plays an important part in achieving confidence in Sussex Police; in other words, she agrees with the fact that the residents of Sussex need to see more police officers patrolling the streets of the county, deterring criminal behaviour and apprehending law breakers.

Definitely good news but, having read that statement, the thought that passed through my mind was “Where is the money to pay them coming from?”

Well, she also said that the Home Office had announced the biggest annual increase in funding for police forces since 2010, a package amounting to nearly a billion pounds.

So, the next thing that passed through my mind was “That should make quite a difference; loads more cops”. More good news.

Unfortunately, not so, because she also said that this huge amount of money was for local forces to cover “national priorities and funds to meet increased pension costs”.

So, exactly where is the money coming from for her to be able to put more officers out onto our streets, something she herself says is important?

Guess where?

You guessed right. From you and me, because it appears that the “nearly a billion pounds”

includes money that can be raised locally by Mrs Bourne’s lifting of the current £12 limit on the police element of council tax.

Definitely a case of the Government giving with one hand and its police representative in Sussex taking it away with the other.

Eric Waters Lancing