Staffordshire's Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis, has proposed a zero increase on the police council tax precept for his area.

The move to freeze the police precept for 2014/15 - which contrasts with anticipated hikes across many of the other 41 police areas in England and Wales - will be debated next Monday 27 January with Staffordshire's police and crime panel.

Staffordshire's policing, community safety and crime reduction budget was originally meant to be reduced by £2.6m this year.  But further top-slices in the police grant announced before Christmas added further £1.7m cutbacks.

Despite the £4.3m cuts, Mr Ellis's office has claimed savings made in the last year would protect neighbourhood policing numbers, permit the recruitment of more police officers and guarantee investment in new ways of joined-up working.

‘With a £4.3m reduction in overall budget for 2014/15, the easy option would be to turn to local council tax-payers to meet the additional shortfall,' Mr Ellis said.

‘But I don't want to do that,' he added.  ‘Budgets are in a strong position so that the financial challenges can be met.'

He said £2.5m would be allocated to local areas to fund community safety projects – more than twice the amount previously available.