Police cuts mean 550 fewer bobbies on Lancashire's steets (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Police cuts mean 550 fewer bobbies on Lancashire's steets

5:00pm Tuesday 3rd July 2012 in News By Lisa Woodhouse , Assistant picture editor

POLICE chiefs have confirmed that there will be 550 fewer officers on the beat across Lancashire by 2015.

A report, published by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC), says the force is in a good position to achieve £44million of savings imposed by the Government by 2015.

According to the document, the force will decrease by 610 staff — reducing the total workforce to 5,430.

The cuts will include 550 officers — a 15 per cent reduction.

A further 20 PCSO roles will be scrapped and 40 non-frontline positions in the next three years.

Meanwhile, police bosses say the force will have a higher proportion of staff working in front-line policing roles — such as police officers, neighbourhood police, traffic and firearms officers — making up a total of 73 per cent of the workforce.

To help meet the funding deficit, the policing precept within Lancashire’s council tax will rise by 2.5 per cent.

Tim Jacques, Assistant Chief Constable, said: “We are really pleased that HMIC has recognised the comprehensive scale of the change programme and we are in a good position to deliver the reductions without impacting on the public as much as possible.

“The way that the reductions have been arranged, the first two years were always going to be the hardest. We have now removed £33million from our annual budget.”

He said he didn’t believe the quality of the service would be affected.

“We are doing all we can to reduce the impact on the service we deliver. This next 12 months will be the toughest because we are taking a big chunk of money out of our budget and we are implementing the new service changes. It will become tougher.

“This may well not be the end of the austerity measures. Lancashire Constabulary will continue to deliver the very best service to people in Lancashire.”