Region’s two biggest police forces to axe 1,500 posts

Departments will be merged and district policing units rolled back under radical cost-cutting plans unveiled by West Yorkshire Police and South Yorkshire Police.

In West Yorkshire, 212 officers and 448 support staff are expected to leave the force by March 2012, with 427 vacant posts due to remain unfilled.

About 100 South Yorkshire officers are expected to go during the same period, rising to 414 by March 2015 as experienced members retire.

Budget forecasts indicate 289 South Yorkshire support staff will leave next year, mostly through voluntary redundancy, and up to 680 will depart over the next four years.

The changes, due to go before the forces’ respective governing authorities on Friday, follow the Government’s decision to cut police spending by 20 per cent in real terms by March 2015.

West Yorkshire faces an £87m budget black hole, while savings of £40m must be found by South Yorkshire, which has the added pressure of a £2m bill for policing next month’s Liberal Democrat conference in Sheffield.

Humberside Police’s plans to cut 139 officer posts next year will be voted on today. Plans for North Yorkshire Police to shrink by 10 officers and up to 350 staff were approved last week.

West Yorkshire Deputy Chief Constable David Crompton said the move was “highly regrettable” but chief officers had tried to ensure the cuts have “as little impact on front line services as possible”.

The chairman of West Yorkshire Police Authority, Mark Burns-Williamson, said: “No one should be under any illusion – this will impact on the way in which policing is delivered throughout West Yorkshire.”

More than half the South Yorkshire officer posts to go will come from the force’s four district policing units, covering the areas in and around Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

Cuts to other departments will include the loss of 22 officers deployed to operational support and 15 officers in specialist crime services.

Imelda Bennett, regional organiser of trade union Unison, which is to hold a rally at Parliament today about the issue, said the scale of the cuts was “gobsmacking” and would have a “dreadful impact” on workloads for staff who remain.