Olly Martins shocked by government decision not to increase police funding in Bedfordshire

OLLY Martins has said that any potential terrorist attacks in Luton are not Bedfordshire Police’s responsibility after the government announced they would not be increasing funding for the force.

The Home Office has unveiled the figures behind the police funding formula review, which show that they still want Bedfordshire’s share of the funding cake to remain exactly the same at just 0.9% of the national police grant.

Mr Martins, Police and Crime Commissioner for Bedfordshire said: “If they proceed on the basis of their published figures the government needs to be very clear that, if there is a serious terrorist incident involving extremists connected with Luton, the responsibility is theirs and not that of the ridiculously overstretched and under-resourced Bedfordshire Police.

“According to the latest figures, in Bedfordshire we have 163 police officers per 100,000 population.

“This is way below the national average of 226 and less than half the Met’s 381. Yet in Luton we are responsible for policing an area that has many of the characteristics of an inner London borough, but with a fraction of the police resource.

“Luton is therefore clearly under-policed and the knock-on impact is that the remainder of the county is exceptionally under-policed.

“The Chief Constable says we would need 300 more officers to be on a par with other forces, but the government looks set to send our police strength in the opposite direction.”

Mr Martins has consistently argued that Bedfordshire Police has needed more funding and initiated a referendum in May to try and get an increase in funding through a hike in council tax, which was rejected in a landslide.

We have contacted the Home Office for a comment.