NORTH Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones has criticised a delay in the setting of the vital policing budget for the coming year.

The North Wales Police and Crime Panel voted to defer debate of Mr Jones’s recommended increase of 3.79 per cent in the police precept which will put an extra £2.25m into frontline policing and 17 more police officers.

That is despite the fact it is the lowest increase of the four forces in Wales and that a survey of the public backed an even bigger increase.

Instead the Panel, meeting in Conwy, voted unanimously in favour of a proposal from the chair, Conwy’s Conservative County Councillor Julie Fallon, that they defer debate of the precept until Tuesday, 31 January, because they hadn’t seen a copy of Mr Jones’s Police and Crime Plan.

This is expected to delay the setting of the precept by at least a week.

Mr Jones, a former police inspector himself who was elected as Commissioner as a Plaid Cymru candidate last May, said: “It is disappointing and frustrating that such an important and necessary step is being delayed.

“The chairman of the panel only informed us of this 90 minutes before the meeting so there was no intention to compromise.

“Today’s meeting was run in a dictatorial fashion by the chair who didn’t allow any input from us at all, it’s a bit like the tail wagging the dog.

“My proposed increase would have meant that the cost of keeping the people of north Wales safe would have risen by just 76p a month, less than the cost of a loaf of bread.

See this week’s north editions for the full story, in shops and online on Thursday