AT the meeting of the Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Panel at County Hall Dorchester, I and the other three councillors representing Bournemouth spoke against and voted against the move to raise the precept to 1.95 per cent. The remaining 12 members of the panel voted in favour.

Though we are in favour of having 12 extra policemen on the beat, we thought that within the huge budget that was running the police in Dorset, the ability to find savings should be possible, especially as the Police Crime Commissioner had been only in the office for such a short time.

The point was made that police car leasing, renting of premises, further bids to the Government for extra money, and further savings should be sought before the public are asked to pay more money to provide the extra police.

In fact in Bournemouth we are all aware of reviewing and reviewing all operations to ensure that services are efficient without it costing more, and when you look at inflation, we are actually reducing the costs to maintain services in the town.

CLLR JOHN ADAMS, Stroudern Park Ward.