AVON and Somerset Police Authority has received its grant funding settlement from the government for the next three years.

This shows that for 2008/09 the Authority will receive a grant of £173.7 million, which represents an increase of 3.5 per cent.

Chairman of the Police Authority, Dr Moira Hamlin said: "The Police Authority and Constabulary have lobbied strongly for recognition of the adverse funding position of Avon and Somerset and we welcome an additional one per cent increase over the minimum increase for all Police Authorities.

"While this begins to recognise the Authority's funding needs, we are still faced with seeing our grant scaled back by over £12 million in the next financial year to cover the costs of providing a minimum increase to all Police Authorities.

"This means that in the five years from 2006/07 to 2010/11 the Authority will have seen its grant entitlement scaled back by over £50 million.

"We are therefore pleased that the Government have announced their intention to remove this system of equalising or damping grant in the future."

Despite the difficult financial situation over the past two years the Authority has made significant investment in a range of areas, particularly Neighbourhood Policing with increased numbers of Police Community Support Officers, and in protective services.

Neighbourhood Policing has also benefited from joined up working between the Authority and some of its local authority partners, who are providing additional funding to support the initiative.

The Authority's funding position for the coming financial year will be challenging and significant work has been undertaken to scrutinise every aspect of our budgets and spending.

This means that the predicted budget shortfall has reduced from over £6 million to around £2 million, although this is still subject to a number of assumptions which the Authority will need to consider.

As part of the work to identify savings and efficiencies the Authority is committed to maintaining or increasing frontline Police Officer numbers.

Dr Hamlin said: "In a bid to identify savings and efficiencies the Authority will be looking to ensure we obtain maximum value for money in all areas of our activity.

"This will include exploring options for collaboration and joint working. For example the Authority is already part of the South West Demonstrator Site for Collaboration on Protective Services.

"We are also leading on collaborative procurement of forensic services for 14 forces and we are still investigating and evaluating the potential option of joining Southwest One Ltd if it can be demonstrated to have direct benefits to the Authority."

The Authority has been undertaking extensive consultation as part of its budget process this year.

It has already consulted with the public, using Ipsos MORI and this has shown that around seven in ten local residents think Avon and Somerset Constabulary is doing a good job.

The consultation process has shown that the public recognise that continued improvement in policing does come at a cost and they are generally supportive of this position.

The Authority will be consulting with our local authority partners and local businesses during January 2008.

A meeting of the full Authority will be held on 13 February 2008 to consider and approve its budget for 2008/09.