The Chief Constable of Staffordshire Police has admitted that the Government’s spending review will pose “major challenges” – but he says the force is prepared.
Mike Cunningham made his comments after Chancellor George Osborne’s announcement yesterday that budgets for departments – including the police – are to be cut. And with forces across the country warned that the overall budget must fall by four per cent each year for the next four years, change will be inevitable.
However Mr Cunningham believes that Staffordshire Police is prepared for the challenges ahead. He said: “At this stage, we still do not know the exact detail of what the announcement means for the force. We anticipate that the specific details of Staffordshire Police’s funding settlement will be revealed later next month.
“However, regardless of this, the communities of Staffordshire should be reassured that we have been preparing to meet this challenge for some time. Plans to re-structure the force and transform services are already at an advanced stage. From April 2011, the existing set-up of four divisions and 21 Neighbourhood Policing Units (NPUs) will be replaced, by Local Policing Teams (LPTs) based on local council and community safety partnership boundaries.”
With the axe set to swing, police forces across the country have already been looking at ways to soften the blow. And Mr Cunningham said that Staffordshire Police is determined to make cuts that will not impact on the quality of service provided to the public in Stone and the rest of the county.
He said: “A massive amount of work is going on to cut back on non-pay costs, such as stationery, overtime, buildings, vehicles and other expenditure. As we move forward with these changes we can only re-emphasise that we are absolutely passionate about delivering high quality policing and all of our decision making will seek to build on that.
“We fully understand that as we change our structure and predict significant savings that this can cause uncertainty. We are working hard to engage with our staff, partners and our communities to keep them informed.”
1 comment
Nick
I’d have more faith in his statement that the cuts will not affect front line policing IF in the same week, we hadn’t been told that Staffs Police have just spent £83,000 on cars for its senior officers, and also they have the brass neck to represent this as a saving.
I’m sure local policing commanders could make far better use of that £83K in improving the quality of life for Staffordshire’s people.
The axe will fall, but the fat cats will stay fat.