The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Surrey has been forced to abandon the idea of a referendum to fill a yawning police funding gap, but now wants a 1.99 per cent rise.

Kevin Hurley had been pushing for the county-wide referendum, which would have cost about £1m, on his proposal to add £1-a-week council tax increase on a band D home to offset the impact of Government funding cuts.

But YouGov polls last year showed there was little support for the move which would have seen the money for Surrey Police from local taxpayers increase by 24 per cent.

Even after he issued dire warnings last month that the funding cuts would put the public at risk, less than a third of those taking part in the survey backed the increase.

Announcing the decision to scrap the referendum last week, Mr Hurley said: “Having surveyed and spoken to thousands of people over the last few months, it is clear that, whilst there is a consistent level of support from around a third of residents for paying a significantly bigger amount towards policing in their council tax, the majority view remains against that decision and instead in favour of the smaller increase of 1.99 per cent.

“That has made my final decision on our budget proposals very simple.

“A referendum would cost over £1m to hold and I would not put that money on the line if I was not certain that a majority of residents would support the proposed increase.”

He pledged to continue lobbying MPs and the Government for more money to police Surrey and said: “The job of policing has never been more complex than it is today, tactically, technologically and culturally. I’m trying to do my bit to get the first class police service that people tell me they want.”

Mr Hurley added the fact that many people supported the idea of a referendum, even if they did not back the proposed increase, “tells me that there are some really exciting opportunities to be had for invigorating our local democracy”.

He now plans to contact the Government to see how the law can be changed to make referendums easier and cheaper.

The latest announcement came at the same time as complaints statistics against Surrey Police were released by the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

Those figures, released on February 2, showed a 4 per cent rise in complaints in 2013-14, with a total of 693, well below the average 15 per cent increase in England and Wales. Some of the increase is believed to be caused by a broadening of the definition of what constitutes a complaint.