Suffolk police’s element of council tax bills is to go up by 1.96% from April.

The rise, proposed by Police and Crime Commissioner Tim Passmore, was approved by the county’s police and crime panel on Friday.

It will add £3.24 a year to the government’s “average” Band D home (£2.52 a year to Band B, the most numerous band in Suffolk).

Mr Passmore presented his precept proposal to the Police and Crime Panel meeting at Suffolk County Council’s HQ today for their consideration; the panel unanimously supported the proposal.

Raising the precept will add £830,000 to the Constabulary’s budget in the next financial year, which will help fund 20 police officers to focus on protecting vulnerable people and support the county’s cyber-crime investigations and three PCSOs to carry out a liaison role in schools.

Mr Passmore said, “Before making the decision to increase the precept I held a public consultation and was reassured that the majority of the people that responded to the survey (70%) were prepared to pay a little extra for their police service.

“This extra money will help us to continue to keep you safe and meet some of the financial challenge that we face in the coming financial year.”

He added, “Suffolk Constabulary does a great job; it’s a low-cost force and offers good value for money but savings still need to be made.

“To meet these challenges, a comprehensive review of local policing has been carried out and the resulting changes will be implemented in April 2016. The demand on the constabulary is changing so the way we police the need to change too but I want to reassure everyone that Suffolk Constabulary will continue to respond in an emergency and safer neighbourhood teams will continue to operate locally, supported by the neighbourhood response teams and enhanced investigation teams.”