A police authority has rubber-stamped a rise in its council tax revenue and has already started recruiting 62 new officers.

North Wales Police and Crime Panel members approved the 4.5 per cent rise in police precept at a meeting in Conwy County Council’s headquarters.

It means the force will receive an extra £12.51 per year, equivalent to a little more than 24p per week for a band D council tax payer.

A presentation on the force’s finances revealed it received a grant from the UK Government.

However it also revealed it received and extra £6.8m in central government funding under Operation Uplift to recruit 62 new police officers.

Deputy chief constable Richard Debicki said they had already started training the first tranche of new recruits.

He said: “Those new recruits are already planned in over the next 12 months. We have already taken on 18 who are in training at the moment and the other 44 will be recruited June and July.”

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