Solution to police's £65m debt problem could be on the way

South Yorkshire Mayor Oliver Coppard, who now also has Police and Crime Commissioner responsibilities, has revealed negotiations are in progress to help defuse the financial time-bomb.

He is hoping to negotiate some new funding from the Home Office to help plug the gap - caused by an accounting error which meant repayment costs on loans taken out for police equipment were not taken into account.

But a second set of negotiations are also under way which would allow the service to re-interpret accounting rules over how debt re-payments and handled.

That would provide police accountants with greater flexibility, allowing them to smooth out the impact of the error, minimising the real-world consequences.

A final figure for the costs of the error, initially put at £65m, has still to be confirmed and some speculation puts the potential figure closer to £80m.

Some of that is for retrospective payments, with some for future payments, which had not been taken unto account with budget forecasting.

He said: “The £65m is money spent that was not accounted for. That is a fundamental challenge.”

The money had been “well spent” on necessary equipment like cars, which was needed to allow police to function, he said.

“It is an accounting error. One of the ways we can fix that is through an accounting fix.”

He believes a strong relationship with policing minister Diana Johnson, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and ‘number ten’ would help find a resolution, and said his team was looking at “smart ways” of finding a fix.

“No-one has done this on purpose. We are now working at pace to solve it.”

Despite that challenge, he said he was determined to continue the force’s progress in providing better policing for the county.

“My ambition is not to get to a neutral place, but to get to a place where South Yorkshire is getting better policing.”

“I am confident we will put South Yorkshire Police into a better place in the next four or five years,” he said.

Moving the PCC function to his office opened up opportunities for better working between public sector bodies on public safety, he said.