LIKE so many other householders in Preston, have recently received my community charge demand for the coming year from the council.

It has, as seems inevitable in this day and age, gone up by more than the rate of inflation.

My major concern, however, is that the portion of the charge that is allocated to the Lancashire Constabulary has only gone up from the 5.99 per cent it was in 1998/99 to 6.01 per cent for this year.

This means that only six per cent of every pound we pay in Council Tax is allocated to the police - whose prime responsibility is the safety and well being of all members of the public.

First we had the Callon estate which made National Television and really put Preston on the map, for all the wrong reasons.

Now we have the Sion estate (the lead story in last week's Citizen), where senior citizens fear for their safety.

I don't think that these are isolated cases, there must be many people who are frightened and up set over what they see going on in their estates on a daily basis.

The solution, in my opinion, to most of these problems is better and more visible policing of these troublesome areas.

This we will never get while only six pence from every pound is allocated to pay for our police force.

The Chief Constable will have had to submit an expenditure estimate to the county council for this coming year.

It would be interesting to know what the original estimate was and by how much it has been reduced by the council.

It is time the county, and Preston Borough Council, reassessed their priorities.

There are people in the town who are frightened to go out and others whose lives are being made a misery.

It will soon be the new Millennium. Give our police force the funding they - and we - deserve.

If we do, I'm sure they can do the job.

John Player

Fulwood

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