A TOWN council has discussed whether it would be willing to fund more police community safety officers. Melksham Town Council has been asked whether it would fund the next round of PCSOs, which cost £21,000 a year.
Some of Melksham's town councillors believe the PCSOs should be funded out of police budgets and it would be a form of double taxation for the town council to pay for them. Cllr Richard Wiltshire said at a council meeting on Monday: "I think this is double taxation really. All sorts of things could be brought into town council budgets which aren't there at the moment."
Cllr Colin Goodhind said: "We have got to come to terms with the fact that policing is changing and it might just be that we have to find the extra money to provide the funding that the police need. I think we have to accept that we need to pay a bit more to get the policing we want."
Town councillors will form a committee to discuss the issue.
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