Alan Billings the Police and Crime Commissioner, has started the process of consulting on next year’s budget, click on image to view in full:
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“I am therefore reluctantly proposing an increase of 1.95% for the police share of council tax.
In 2014/15 the average Band D household paid £143.55 per year towards policing.
An increase of 1.95% will result in an average Band D household paying £148.16.
This is an annual increase of £2.83 or about 6p per week for the year 2015/16.”
I can’t make this add-up.
Surely £148.16 minus £143.55 = £4.61 not £2.83 ???
Or have I completely missed the point?
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None of this seems to add up. Maths was never my strong point, but according to my calculator an increase of 1.95% would be £146.35, not £148.16. But maybe I’ve worked it out wrong?
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You got it right!
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@rr.
You have’nt missed the point at all.
Your figure of £4.61 is correct. Dividing this sum by 52 gives an increase of 08.8p per week, not ‘about 6p per week’.
But hey, we are dealing with a Labour politician.
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A difference then of 2.8 pence per week or 22%. Quite some difference then! Tells us plenty about Alan Billings and the accuracy of his utterances?
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Rothpol,
it tells us nothing beyond the fact that a PCC press officer is innumerate.
I think I sent you the link and my comment above a couple of days ago.
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You did indeed, just was not able to fit it in until today.
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So are you now withdrawing your, to say the least, unfortunate comment?
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Janet
Why should Rothpol withdraw his comment?
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When it was entirely correct! Changing the record retrospectively, is a decidedly Labour preserve, is it not?
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No! 🙂
Anyone and everyone makes mistakes. After all, it was a simple transcription error :£143.55 when it was meant to be £145.33. Anyone wanting to use this to attack Labour must be really short of obvious targets.
Lets not forget that UKIPs attitude to climate change could be characterised as a denial of the laws of arithmetic. (IMHO).
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Hi Colin,
I just call it “about 9p a week”.
… and the PCC, “a man of the church”. – but we all have our prejudices.
I expect it would be one of the staff who wrote that, not the PCC himself, but it should have been checked. I’m sure they wouldn’t have allows a spelling or grammar error to go out the door.
___________________
I filled in the survey some days ago, and pointed out the arithmetic inconsistency in my comment in the survey then.
[rant] As someone who is barely literate, but managed to build an entire career based purely on my numeracy, I’m always saddened at the way so many organisations fail to present numbers.in any meaningful fashion or check that they make some basic sense. [end rant]
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Why withdraw the statement “Tells us plenty about Alan Billings and the accuracy of his utterances”?
Well, as I have been able to confirm having made an enquiry, Police and Crime Commissioner Reverend Dr Alan Billings had prepared an entirely accurate statement – having met him previously, I would expect no other – and the error (£143.55 instead of the accurate £145.33) was one of transcription in a report and on the website.
So, rather than ‘telling us plenty about Alan Billings’, it actually doesn’t tell us much more at all. It simply confirms ‘the accuracy of his utterances’, which seems to run directly counter to the implication in the statement.
I’ve always believed that, if you get something wrong, you should have the good grace to acknowledge that and take steps to correct any inaccurate implication.
That’s also how I conduct my business, and it’s what I expect from those who work for me.
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Rothpol, I think your headline for this should be:”Police Budget Consultation – Bogus Figures?” There may possibly be an innocent explanation.
…. and I’ve just sent you an e-mail on what the press is saying about our local UKIP MEP Amjad Bashir Not nice.
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Do you mean conservative mep?
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http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4334516.ece It’s swap shop
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there are no winners in either of these swaps.
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More details of the budget precept proposals are available on pages 9 to 14 here:
http://moderngov.rotherham.gov.uk/documents/g12695/Public%20reports%20pack%2030th-Jan-2015%2013.00%20Police%20and%20Crime%20Panel.pdf?T=10
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… and both the web-site and the report pack now show the 2012/13 Band D figure as £145.33 rather than £143.55. All is well!
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