A PLEA to increase the police council tax precept by 3.99% is expected to be thrown out today.

Chief Constable Mick Creedon wishes to impose the increase, meaning an extra £6.54 for an average band D council property tax payer, to be able to pay for the recruitment of 60 new police officers from April.

But Councillor Philip Hickson, chairman of Derbyshire Police Authority, said he was keen not to place any further burden on the public at a time of economic difficulty and was likely to opt for no increase in the precept.

Instead, there could be a vote to release money from the police reserves to pay for the recruitment, which could see as many as 180 new officers on the beat over the next three years,

Mr Hickson said: "We share the ambition of the Chief Constable to start recruiting officers again and we do want to stem the loss of officers from Derbyshire Constabulary but I do not think that raising the council tax precept is the right way to do it.

"The police authority has considerable reserves at its disposal and significant savings have already been achieved.

"My view is that we should use the reserves that we have to invest in some recruitment of police officers and police community support officers to halt any further reduction in officer numbers and that we should not be raising the council tax precept."

The meeting will take place today at police headquarters in Ripley, starting at 9.30am, and members of the public are welcome to attend and observe the proceedings.