THE proposed cuts to the Devon and Cornwall Police force announced last Friday would be a ‘retrograde’ step and would leave East Cornwall without a police presence, according to the mayor of Callington.

Policing in the area looks likely to take a massive hit as Devon and Cornwall Police announced it may have to axe more than 700 officer posts and the force’s entire contingent of police community support officers (PCSOs).

The force held its latest Police and Crime Panel meeting on Friday. At the meeting, chief constable Shaun Sawyer outlined Devon and Cornwall Police’s response to the potential impact of planned budget cuts in the coming years. Changes to the police funding formula used by the Government and estimates over the likely impact of the comprehensive spending review (CSR) means the force will have to make £54-million of savings by 2020.

Devon and Cornwall Police is planning to lose a total of 1,300 staff by 2020 — 760 of these will be police officers. To meet the target, the force is also looking at the complete removal of the 360 PCSO posts and a further 180 jobs to be found from elsewhere in the organisation.

At the moment, the East Cornwall area is covered by two PCSOs and one visiting PC from Launceston.

Chief constable Shaun Sawyer said: ‘It is clear that any cut of this magnitude would have a significant impact on the service we are able to provide to the public. We have clear statutory obligations around areas such as safeguarding, the National Strategic Policing Requirement and the Civil Contingencies Act for floods, disasters and other such events. We are therefore considering which other services we can continue to provide, outside of those core services.

‘Despite making plans for significant non-staff cuts, over 80 percent of our budget is allocated as staff costs. Over the course of the last comprehensive spending review we shrank our budget by £58-million; £20-million of which came from non staff costs, which means that a small pot is already significantly smaller than it was.’

The announcement comes a fortnight after the force announced plans to close police stations offices across the two counties in the next five years.

The station closures were announced after the force strives to take £29-million from its current budget, but revised figures show the force needs to save closer to £54-million, hence the plans for extensive staffing cuts.

The chief constable added: ‘It is not lost on me that every single one of these “posts” is occupied by hard working, dedicated colleagues who strive to serve the public and provide essential policing services which keep the public safe.

‘Overall this would mean that the workforce would have shrunk from 6,200 posts in 2010 to around 3,900 by 2019/2020.

‘Clearly all of these figures are based solely on what we know currently about the potential cuts.  We do not yet know the grant figures from the Home Office with whom we are continuing to work closely. All we do know is that we must plan now and revise our plans as the finances become clearer.’

In response to the proposed cuts, Callington Mayor and Portreeve and Cornwall councillor for the town Cllr Andrew Long said: ’It is disgraceful that we should be even thinking about making these cuts. Cornwall is already poorly funded compared to Devon. If we get rid of all the PCSOs we will have no police presence at all in South East Cornwall, which is a big area of thousands of people.

’The fear of crime is just as damaging to the population as crime itself. If you take away the police presence then what are you left with? I think it’s a retrograde step. We need to work together with our police force and with the PCSOs to fight the planned cuts. I will be doing my bit by talking to the union and the PCSOs to try to stop this from going ahead.’

Devon and Cornwall’s Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Hogg is one of six threatening the Home Office with legal action over the changes to police funding. The six commissioners will seek a judicial review unless the changes are halted.

Mr Hogg is to launch a public consultation to gauge the public’s willingness to pay more through their council tax police precept to protect some of police services.

MP for South East Cornwall Sheryll Murray told the Times: ‘I feel it is wrong for the current Police and Crime Commissioner to carry out these wholesale changes to personnel and infrastructure when he is standing down from the job in a few months.

‘I too have concerns about the budget and that is why I joined him in Downing Street recently and delivered a petition calling for a funding formula which took into account aspects like our massively increased population during the tourist season. I also feel there are a number of options to resolve budgetary issues which have not been fully examined.

‘I believe, in the run up to the election for the post of Police and Crime Commissioner, candidates should come forward with an innovative and sustainable plan for the future. They should say what they are going to do and then the people can decide the best way forward.’