Public expenditure: Police Authority concerned over cuts

South Yorkshire Police Authority has criticised the Policing Minister, Nick Herbert, after he told chief constables nationally to find 125m of savings in 2010/11.

As a result of the announcement South Yorkshire Police Authority will see its policing grant reduced from 110.2m to 107.4m, a cut of 2.8m.

The authority's capital grant, which pays for the force's buildings, land and equipment, will be reduced from 3.3m to 3.1m.

Chief executive Bill Wilkinson said: "The authority is concerned about the unprecedented in-year reduction in government grants.

"It is hoped that we will be able to avoid cuts in services during the current year, because the authority and the chief constable are already making plans for phased savings in readiness for the bigger cuts which are expected from 2011.

"But whichever way you look at it there is 3m the authority had assumed was available and which now represents a gap in our financial plans for the next four years."

Bob Pitt, a spokesman for the South Yorkshire Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said his members would agree with Mr Wilkinson.

He added: "How we can make savings of this sort of money without impacting on front line services is the major question. How is it to be achieved without reducing the number of officers?

"In South Yorkshire we have already seen a reduction of 10 per cent in police numbers, from 3,300 to around 3,000 and we can only hope there won't be a further impact.

"The Federation is being kept 'in the loop' by the chief constable and we will be attempting to ensure emergency response services are protected."

Humberside Police Authority has also spoken of the difficulty it faces after the announcement. The force will face total cuts of 2m but has vowed frontline services will be unaffected.