Job losses as Gloucestershire police authority sets its budget

Sixty-five jobs will be lost at Gloucestershire police in the next financial year, it has been announced.

A £99 million police budget will mean fewer job cuts than expected for the county`s constabulary after Gloucestershire Police Authority set the force`s budget yesterday.

Fifty of these posts have already been determined, leaving 15 more to be found.

Tim Brain, Chief Constable for Gloucestershire police, reassured the people of Gloucestershire that the cuts would relate to police staff posts rather than to police officers.

He said: “I am extremely grateful that the Authority has supported the constabulary with prudent increases in the budget and council tax which will enable the constabulary to maintain frontline services while delivering a degree of development and investment for the future.”

The new police budget of £99.1 million will mean an increase of 4.99 per cent in the police element of the council tax precept for the year.

The amount paid towards policing by the average Band D property taxpayer will increase by 17p per week or £9 per year.

Dr Brain said: “The actual amount of money we proposed amounts to £9 a year. That`s a small amount of money and it will enable us to keep the constabulary going forward to meet our stringent objectives and community expectations.”

Gloucestershire residents could have been facing a police council tax rise of more than nine per cent, but a government general grant settlement of 2.5 per cent prevented this.

However, in a public consultation 77 per cent of respondents said they would be prepared to pay a 9.2 per cent if this meant maintaining existing levels of service.

Rob Garnham, chairman of the Police Authority, said: “Members of the public understand the needs of the constabulary but we always said we wouldn`t ask for more money than was needed.”