Herefordshire households to pay £20 more for police and fire

Herefordshire households will have to pay more from next month to fund local emergency services which now find themselves short of money.

County chiefs met on Friday (March 6) to vote through the final figures for 2026/27 council tax bills, which will also see above-inflation rises in the extras that are added to the bill, including to fund police and fire services locally, along with the core amount paid to Herefordshire Council which goes up by 5 per cent.

Council leader Jonathan Lester, delivering a report in the absence of finance chief Coun Peter Stoddart, told colleagues the precept paid to West Mercia Police would mean an increase on bills of 5.15 per cent, while the levy for Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority would go up 4.89 per cent.

For a mid-range band D property, this will mean a rise of £15 going to the police in the year ahead, to £306.50, and a rise of £5 to the fire service, to £107.22 for the year.

In all, Herefordshire will pay £22.8 million to West Mercia Police and just under £8 million to Hereford and Worcester Fire Authority in 2026/27.
Coun Liz Harvey, a Herefordshire representative on the West Mercia Police and Crime Panel, said the police precept “is set with the maximum allowable uplift”, but that it “still leaves a hole in the budget in terms of there being yet-to-be-described savings”.

“West Mercia Police are in a very difficult position in terms of their finances, as are lots of other publicly funded bodies,” she added.

And her Independents for Herefordshire colleague Coun Dave Boulter, who sits on the Hereford & Worcester Fire Authority board, said: “It’s been a very difficult time for the authority inasmuch as their allowance from government has been cut back dramatically and we’ve had to lose people.”

“That’s why the five pounds is in there, and I hope people will understand we’re protecting a blue-light service,” he said.

Coun Lester added that “parish precepts” paid by council taxpayers to their immediate communities would also go up by an average of 8 per cent.

Councillors voted to pass the final council tax amounts, with two abstentions.