BURNHAM Town Council’s budget for the next financial year will include thousands of pounds invested in special constables to bring a visible police presence to the town.

The town council have agreed a budget of £212,250 for the 2018/2019 financial year, which will include £4,000 invested into Essex Police’s Special Constabulary programme.

The scheme involves the recruitment and training of Special Constables; volunteer police officers who have the same powers and uniforms as officers but give up their own time on a voluntary basis. They are not paid but get expenses reimbursed.

The town council’s budget was agreed at a meeting on Tuesday. During discussions of how savings could be made, Mike Wood, of Burnham North Ward, questioned whether having volunteer police officers would be worthwhile.

He said: “To me, having someone in a uniform walking up and down the streets for ten hours every week is not worthwhile, I do not believe the impact it may have would be worth us as a council spending £4,000.

“It is also not our responsibility as a council to provide officers, which is the job of the police.”

Whilst members agreed it was not the council’s responsibility, it was agreed having more officers on the streets is what Burnham residents have been asking for.

Vanessa Bell said: “I’ve had so many residents come to me over the last few months who have been crying out for a visible police presence in the town.

“We’ve seen a spate of burglaries and other crimes here, and people are understandably worried.

“I agree that we should not be paying for them, but to turn this opportunity down to have more officers ensuring our streets are safe would be a betrayal.”

Burnham Mayor Bob Calver said: “This kind of initiative is a passion for many people living in Burnham, a visible police presence is what residents want to see.

“Ideally, the police should be providing this. But under the circumstances in tougher times, with less resources, the best we can do as a council is invest funds into a scheme that will help them feel safer in their own town.”

Council tax to remain the same for Burnham residents

BURNHAM residents will be paying the same amount of council tax for the next year, despite an initial decision to cut it.

Burnham Town Council is set to take a precept of £188,000 of council tax for the 2018/2019 financial year, the same amount as this year.

This was set out in the first draft budget meeting of the council. However, at an amendments meeting on January 9, Peter Elliott, of Burnham South, proposed it be reduced to £170,000, a ten per cent decrease, which was seconded by Mike Wood. This was before a budget had been officially agreed.

Following this, concerns were raised by Wendy Stamp of Burnham North, plus financial officers at Maldon District Council, that setting the council tax level before the budget had been agreed was unlawful.

As a result, the council debated the budget at their meeting on Tuesday, and after agreeing the figures debated the precept, where concerns were raised that £18,000 less from council tax would hinder the council’s projects and services to residents.

Nick Skeens said: “It looks disastrous that the amount of money we would have this year being so low. We as a council have so many different projects and plans which are not possible to run without support from the council tax precept.”

Burnham Mayor Bob Calver said: “A ten per cent decrease in precept would mean a 15 per cent decrease in services. When it adds up, the proposed deductions are the price of a portion of fish and chips per household. It does not seem reasonable to impose them.”

Following this, councillors voted to keep the precept at £188,000.