You may already know that our children get a raw deal on schools funding. Every pupil at school in central London for example get thousands more spent on them than is spent in Plymouth. Even less is spent, per pupil, in Devon. What you might not know is that the raw deal doesn’t stop there.
Take the police. The police budget for Devon and Cornwall last year was a little over £268 million, which works out at about £159 for every man, woman and child in the region. That is less, per resident, than 35 other forces in England and Wales – which is almost all of them. In fact, the force gets £40 less per person than the average for England and Wales. If Devon and Cornwall got the average per resident funding it would receive an extra £68 million per year, the equivalent of the combined starting salaries of an extra 3,000 constables.
Six forces get more than £200 per person: Gwent (£201), the West Midlands (£209), Greater Manchester (£212), Cleveland (£223), Merseyside (£235), the London Met (£342), and the City of London’s own force (an amazing £6,412 per resident!).
How do we change this? Well, we could start by binning ID card plans straight away. They are a massive waste of money, and an alien intrusion into traditional British liberties. The money saved could pay for thousands more police officers, which would start to make up for our local shortfall.
• Who’da thought it, to bin ID cards to pay for actual police? Comments below, please!
Come and enjoy Devon – book a hotel and get away!
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