Chief fears for policing as cuts threat doubled

South Yorkshire Police Authority imposed a five per cent cut in the money the county's force has to pay officers' overtime earlier this year.

Now it has raised the prospect of a 10 per cent cut, provoking a warning it could jeopardise the level of service expected by the public.

Chief Constable Mereddyd Hughes attempted to soften the blow from the measures imposed in the spring to bring down the 9m it spends each year for extra pay, which amounts to five per cent of its total spending on salaries compared with a national average of three per cent.

He argued its overtime levels were higher because the force had proportionally fewer officers for the size of the population.

Had it succeeded, his proposal would have meant reducing the annual overtime bill by 267,000 a year rather than the 464,000 put forward by the authority.

But authority members over-ruled Mr Hughes and pushed forward the full reduction. Now minutes of an authority meeting have revealed there is an opinion among members that this was "not sufficiently challenging" and should be increased to 10 per cent.

The suggestion has prompted a guarded response from the force and thrown the authority into conflict with the South Yorkshire Police Federation, the officers' 'union'.

The federation has already warned that nationally 40,000 front-line jobs could go as a result of Government cuts.

South Yorkshire Police has already lost around 200 officers but expects staffing to be maintained for at least two years.

Deputy Chief Constable Bob Dyson said: "As we face further financial cuts in the years ahead we will no doubt seek to make further reductions in the levels of overtime.

"We will continue to try to minimise the impact on the public, but there will be limitations as to how that can be achieved."

Overtime is needed to cope with surges in demand, such as major crime investigations.

The claims of constable and sergeants can sometimes outstrip the salaries of their supervisors when overtime is taken into account.

Federation Secretary Insp Bob Pitt said overtime was increasingly necessary because officers with specific skills were in high demand.

"What are we going to stop doing? That is a significant question as the public has right to expect a quality service," he said. "What would the public be prepared for the police not to do?"

He said officers already worked beyond their contracts and those working in the ranks of inspector and chief inspector put in long hours for no extra pay because overtime at that level had been stopped since the mid-1990s.

South Yorkshire Police Authority's chairman Charles Perryman confirmed all four Yorkshire forces had drawn up plans for areas of "collaboration" which would see them merge certain departments to save money.

He said he expected the plans, which would inevitably lead to job losses in areas where there was duplication of services, to be published in December.