Police stations and jobs threat in cash cuts
Fife Police could be forced to cut jobs and close police stations as they battle to meet a £15 million funding shortfall over the next four years.
- By Claire Warrender
- Published in the Courier : 15.12.10
- Published online : 15.12.10 @ 08.41am
Chief Constable Norma Graham has revealed that budget cuts will have a direct impact on community policing and may result in a reduced service in some areas.
Just over 100 jobs are expected to go within the next 18 months as 53 members of staff and 48 officers leave through natural turnover.
However, it is thought further job cuts could be needed to balance the books and this, Mrs Graham said, could mean police being pulled off the beat to fill backroom posts.
Her comments follow similar concerns expressed by the head of Lothian and Borders Police, David Strang.
While the chairman of Fife Council's police, fire and safety committee, Councillor George Kay, insisted negotiations were still ongoing and no final decisions had been taken on cuts, Labour said Mrs Graham's comments exposed the SNP's policing plan as a con.
The Fife force is expecting a funding cut of 9% next year, and 5% in each of the following three years.
The chief constable told The Courier, "Over the last few years the force has delivered a high quality policing service to the people of Fife, with substantial reductions in crime and a significant investment in community policing which has seen over 50 additional officers dedicated to, and visible in, local communities.
"At the same time, we have undertaken a comprehensive review of the force, which has produced a leaner, flatter and more efficient structure which has allowed us to deliver on our vision of taking policing closer to the community.
"Whilst the force has adopted an approach to budgetary cuts that seeks to protect and preserve core policing services, it is inevitable that the scale of the cuts, coupled with the requirement to maintain officer numbers, will result in a reduction to policing services across Fife."
Mrs Graham said that given officer numbers were protected under the Scottish Government's policing plan and that 88% of the police budget is spent on people, the cuts would have to come from police staff.
"As many of these posts are critical to frontline delivery, this may result in reduced service in areas such as call handling and station opening hours," she said.
"In some cases this may involve station closures.
"This in turn will have a direct impact on community policing with officers having to be taken off the beat and out of their communities to backfill posts."
Scotland's shadow justice secretary Richard Baker expressed fears that the scale of the cuts could damage community safety, and took a swipe at the SNP's pledge to get 1000 extra officers on the beat.
"Policing our streets and keeping our communities safe are simply too important for the SNP to be politicking in such a bare-faced way," he said.
"It is clear senior police officers from across Scotland understand what Kenny MacAskill does not — cutting backroom police support staff will force frontline beat officers behind desks instead of out patrolling our streets.
"Norma Graham makes the same point as her colleague David Strang from Lothian and Borders — SNP cuts will mean fewer officers on the frontline, with less visible policing damaging community safety.
"What is the point of having 1000 extra officers if they are stuck behind desks filling in forms?"
Central Fife MSP Tricia Marwick hit back, however, stating that the biggest threat to Scottish policing came not from the SNP but from Mr Baker and his Labour colleagues who have proposed a single Scottish police force.
"There is no doubt that the budgets for the police and every other service are going to be challenging," she said.
"However, the money that Scottish police are getting is way in excess of police forces in England.
"In any event, if Mr Baker gets his way there will be only one police force in the whole of Scotland.
"There will be no Fife chief constable, no Fife police headquarters and that will have the greatest impact on the kind of local services they can provide in the future."
Councillor Kay told The Courier that no matter what happened, frontline police services would be protected.
"There is still a lot of negotiation to be undertaken to arrive at a final police budget and we still don't know where the cuts are going to come," he said.
"There is a whole string of things being negotiated at a local and national level and hopefully we will be able to come forward in the not-too-distant future with a programme of cuts."
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