BATLEY and Spen MP Tracy Brabin has criticised Government plans to force taxpayers to foot the bill for more police officers as “unjust and fundamentally unfair”.

Under the Conservative Government’s Funding Settlement announced today, police forces will be given the option to double the council tax precept for policing.

It comes after years of cuts to West Yorkshire Police Force, which has lost £114m in central government funding and almost 1,000 police officers and PCSOs since 2010.

The Funding Settlement will mean that Surrey, for example, an area with half the population and a quarter of the violent crime of West Yorkshire, will be able to raise almost exactly the same amount.

Ms Brabin said: “I have repeatedly called for more funding for our police force here in West Yorkshire which is struggling to cope against soaring crime rates after years of cuts.

"And now the very people who have witnessed police officers disappear from their neighbourhoods over the past nine years will be forced to foot the bill. This means that areas that have lost the most through cuts will get the least. It’s unjust and it’s fundamentally unfair.

"And it shows once again that the government are determined to do public safety on the cheap, regardless of the consequences.”