Cleveland police has undertaken three reviews of local policing functions:
- Neighbourhood Policing
- Incident Resolution Team (IRT)
- Protecting vulnerable people (PVP)
Part of the implementation will be a change to a more efficient shift pattern which will see more officers working at times to match demand.
In order to maximise the use of resources, it is essential that there are sufficient vehicles available for officers on duty.
It was a specific recommendation of the PVP review that PVP should move away from the use of personal vehicles to increased use of the police fleet.
As reported in the long-term financial plan (LTFP,) a fleet review was to be undertaken in February to support new ways of working, It was anticipated that this would require an increase in the size of the fleet.
The review has been undertaken and an extra 69 vehicles are required in the Local Policing Fleet.
However, by re-allocating existing vehicle and re-phasing the fleet replacement programme, this is reduced to 43 additional vehicles in 2016-17 at a cost of £454K.
There may be some additional costs in future year but this will be minimised by revising the criteria for vehicle replacement and effectively getting more form the existing fleet.
The increased annual revenue cost of the additional vehicles is approximately £200k.
This will be offset by savings of £100k in essential car user allowances. This leaves a net increase of £100K. Provision has been made for this in the LTFP.
The full business case for these proposals is attached. Decision: to approve £454K of Capital Spending to buy an additional 43 vehicles to support the delivery of the Local Policing Reviews.