Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Commissioner Christopher Salmon wants the amount householders pay for their policing services to stay the same this year.

He is recommending a freeze in the policing element of council tax payments across Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire and Powys.

Mr Salmon said: “I am determined to keep our communities safe. Over the last three years I have delivered more officers on our rural beats for more time, for less money. No other Police and Crime Commissioner has achieved that.

“My plan will ensure we can continue to keep our homes and businesses safe. Crime and antisocial behaviour are down and householders now pay less for more police than they did on my election."

Mr Salmon’s proposal would maintain a policing precept at council tax band D of £200.07. It would help deliver a 2016-17 Dyfed-Powys Police budget of £93.34m (15-16 £93.33m).

He said: “My precept proposal, as in previous years, balances the needs of families with the needs of our police service.

“Local policing is a priority and, due to investment in IT, our officers can now spend over 100,000 hours extra on the beat. That’s on top of the 30 new police officer posts we created.

“We have new mental health incident units, a new partnership to tackle antisocial behaviour and more domestic violence advisors. New rape crisis centres will open soon and I am rolling out a £15m programme to make our buildings better for the public and personnel.

"The police force still has significant reserves of £30.1m of public money and the long-term trend is that crime is falling.”

Mr Salmon’s precept proposal will go to the Dyfed-Powys Police and Crime Panel on Friday, January 22. They have the power of veto over the initial proposal. Once the Commissioner and Panel agree a figure it will be implemented.

From November to this month, Mr Salmon consulted the public. The feedback helped him propose the freeze, with around 47% of people saying they felt they paid about the right amount for the police and 23% saying they paid too much. The remainder said they paid too little.

In 2016-17, Government funding to Dyfed-Powys will fall in by 0.6% from £50.3m to £50.0m. A precept freeze would produce £43.3m for Dyfed-Powys Police.

Mr Salmon said: “My decision to keep household costs the same reflects my duty to spend every penny of the public’s money as if it were my own.

“The public want strong frontline policing and, through the whole organisation working more wisely and professionally, that’s what I have delivered. We’re on track to save £8.8m from 2013-16.

“Ours is not a rich part of the world but I have ensured that families struggling with bills pay a little bit less. Dyfed-Powys householders will pay less for policing in 2017 than they did in 2014.”