POLICING in the area looks likely to take another massive hit after Devon and Cornwall Police announced it may have to axe over 700 officer posts and the force’s entire contingent of 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. Seven hundred and sixty 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.

The announcement comes less than a fortnight after Devon and Cornwall Police announced its intentions to close Okehampton Police Station by 2018/19 and replace it with a neighbourhood team base, probably co-located in a public sector partnership building.

Town mayor Paul Vachon has been vocal in the past about how damaging relentless budgetary cuts were on rural policing.

In December 2014, he criticised the Government for continually slashing police budgets and wrote an open letter to Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Hogg on how policing was being affected by financial restraints.

A fortnight ago he questioned ‘what sort of coverage we’ll be left with in Okehampton’ after the announcement that the town station was to close.

He said: ‘It is hard to understand how an already depleted police force would be able to operate effectively if further budget cuts were enforced by the Government. The worry is that Okehampton will be further isolated and potentially more susceptible to crime if fewer officers were on the beat.

‘I wrote to Tony Hogg last year to outline our concerns and to encourage him to lobby the Government. He has done that at every opportunity but the response has been to continue with the cutbacks. The figures recently announced by the police are speculative so we must be cautious but we should not let that stop us campaigning for an efficient and visible police presence in the town.’

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 came a fortnight after the force announced plans to close police station offices across the two counties in the next five years — including Okehampton Police Station in 2018/19. The station closures were announced after the force strives to take £29-million from its current budget, but revised figures showed the force needed 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.’

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 told the House of Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) why the Government’s proposed police funding formula was unfair, and particularly disadvan-tageous to Devon and Cornwall. He said he was pleased to be able to continue the debate at the very highest level.

He said: ‘The public will know that I have already campaigned long and hard on their behalf over this issue, and the stakes are extremely high.

‘The chief constable has told us what the impact of these massive cuts will be in terms of front line capability and I am absolutely determined to do everything that I can to help mitigate the disastrous effect that I believe they will have on our communities in Devon and Cornwall.’

Mr Hogg is currently preparing to launch a public consultation across Devon and Cornwall to gauge the public’s willingness to pay more through their council tax police precept to protect some of the police services that will be lost if the cuts take effect.

l What are your thoughts on the intended police staffing cuts? Could it have a damaging effect on the Okehampton area? Write us an e-mail at [email protected] or send a letter to Okehampton Times, The Ockment Centre, North Street, Okehampton, EX20 1AR.