Police chiefs want to charge households an extra £5 a year to pay for 60 extra officers on the streets.

Householders in a Band D property currently pay £147.15 a year for Essex Police, but Crime Commissioner Nick Alston hopes to ask people to hand over £5 a year extra - the maximum increase allowed under the new rules announced by George Osborne this week.

As part of the Chancellor’s announcement to maintain police budgets, he confirmed individual police forces would be able to increase the portion of the council tax for policing by more than the previous two per cent.

However Mr Alston said the new £5 a year limit was “nowhere near” what he believed to be necessary.

He had hoped to increase police council tax precept by 18 per cent - an extra £26 a year - to fund 300 more officers and make a “tangible difference” to people’s lives.

In the wake of the announcement, Mr Alston said: “During the past few months, I have been making the case for an increase in policing council tax here in Essex of around 50 pence per week which, as an indication, could fund around 300 police officer posts.

“The Government’s announcement means that I will be able to raise the policing precept by £5 per year, or around 10 pence per week.

“However, since our financial forecasting for 2016-17 already budgeted for an increase of around six pence per week, increasing policing council tax by £5 per year would only raise around an extra £1.2 million.

“Of course I welcome this, but it is nowhere near what I believe to be the necessary increase.

“I will make the case for a £5 per year increase in the policing precept. If it is agreed, I will ask Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh to use this £1.2 million exclusively for local policing.”

Residents in Essex currently pay one of the lowest precepts in the country for their police force.

The only force below Essex is Sussex Police, with their precept at £141.12 a year. Residents in Surrey pay a yearly £211.68 for policing.

Mr Alston claimed the Essex Police’s rate has “led to significant strains on our police service”.

The proposed hike follows Mr Osborne’s Autumn Statement, which ruled out further cuts to police budgets.

However Essex Police still has to save £12million by 2017.

PCSO numbers are expected to be cut from 250 to 60. Front counter staff will be cut from 98 to 36, with the closure of police stations, subject to a public consultation.

The force has already lost more than 1,000 jobs since 2010 and it could lose 1,000 more by 2020.