A NUMBER of police station canteens are facing closure after Lancashire Constabulary withdrew the subsidy it pays its catering facilities.

The news comes as the force says it is determined to do as much as it can to protect the frontline, while being forced to find £41million worth of savings from its budget, during the next four years.

Lancashire Police Federation chairman John O’Reilly said it was looking like some canteens would close and others would have to increase prices and reduce services to survive.

The Lancashire Telegraph understands that Burnley and Accrington police station canteens will close, with redundancies of kitchen staff employed by the firm contracted to provide food.

Staff at the canteens are said to be ‘devastated’ at losing their jobs.

It is likely that the canteen at Greenbank Police Station – the headquarters for Eastern division, at Whitebirk, Blackburn, – will remain open.