Meeting held over police budget

Police authority heads will find out how they could be penalised at the meeting

Members of Warwickshire's police authority have been called to a meeting with the government over its plans to raise its council tax share by 12.9%.

The police authority said it needed the extra cash to deal with recent high-profile and extensive cases.

They included the shooting on the M40 of biker Gerry Tobin and the death of four firefighters in a warehouse blaze.

However, the government has said it will penalise any authority wanting to increase budgets by more than 5%.

Officials are expected to outline what those penalties may be at the meeting next week.

Ministers have said they want to protect council tax payers from excessive rises.

However, police authority chairman Phillip Blundell has warned that if their budget is not allowed to rise by that amount, the county would face not being properly protected.

Mr Blundell was set to meet the heads of six other police authorities across England on Wednesday which also face having their tax increases capped.

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