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Police budgets face £3m ‘efficiency’ cuts
Lancashire Constabulary bosses have said they are confident police services will not be compromised after being told its budget is to be slashed by almost £3m.
The coalition government came under fire for the move, with Labour’s shadow policing minister David Hanson saying the cuts “will have a real impact on policing, crime and the fight against terrorism”.
Policing Minister Nick Herbert announced this year’s core government funding to the police will be slashed by £125m and another £10m will be cut from counter-terrorism policing.
Lancashire’s revenue grant for front line policing in 2010/11 is cut by £2.9m from the £116.8m agreed by the Labour government in February.
The force’s capital grant, which includes the funding the maintenance of police stations, is dropping by £300,000 from £3.5m to £3.2m.
Miranda Carruthers-Watt, the chief executive of Lancashire Police Authority, said the constabulary would be able to “absorb” the funding cut.
She said: “We have been living in the same world as everyone else and since 2007 have been going through a structural process of organisational change to identify where we need to make savings.
“We want to be able to do our part in supporting the government to balance the budget.
“We are confident we can do it without any reductions in services but in terms of police numbers and front line police we need to look at the services that are delivered and make sure they are being delivered as efficiently as possible.”
Mr Herbert insisted the police need to contribute to spending cuts and that he was asking police authorities “to make a fair share of savings”.
“Even after this reduction, government funding to the police will still increase by £124m this year to around £9.61 billion,” he said.
But Labour’s David Hanson said: “I am extremely concerned that the new Tory-Lib Dem Government has made this decision to cut vital police funding.
“This is a substantial cut to the funding that had already been agreed by Parliament - an agreement that the Tories did not oppose earlier this year.
“The funding cut of £125 million in the core police settlement, alongside a cut of £10 million in capital grants and £10 million from the counter-terrorism budget will have a real impact on policing, crime and the fight against terrorism.”
Lancashire Police is currently operating a recruitment freeze. Ms Carruthers-Watt said the police constabulary “will avoid compulsory redundancies wherever possible”.
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Weather for Preston
Wednesday 22 February 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 11 C to 12 C
Wind Speed: 40 mph
Wind direction: South west
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Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 14 C
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Comments
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kezzer
Sunday, May 30, 2010 at 12:38 AMGet rid of PCSO s...waste of a uniform,training and deployment...no powers,youth laugh at them...waste of space...
Malbartoni
Saturday, May 29, 2010 at 02:06 PMWell If the POLICE were doing proper police work instead of targeting the poor motorist we may be able to halve the budget.Take the cars off them and put them on foot patrol.Take their speed radar guns off them and they are lost.
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