Security alert from top officer over cuts and Games

Meredydd Hughes, who leads South Yorkshire Police, warned the UK's "security position" would be affected by ministers' decision to slash grants to police forces in the two years before the Games take place in London.

The Government announced on Monday that grants would be reduced by 5.1 per cent in cash terms next year and by 6.7 per cent the year after.

But after taking inflation into account, the outlook for chief constables appears even bleaker. The cuts in real terms are 7.5 per cent in 2011-12 and 8.7 per cent in 2012-13.

Mr Hughes, the Association of Police Officers' vice-chair for Olympics policing, said he feared this could encourage some forces to scale back specialist units that will be needed for keeping order at sporting events and public demonstrations such as student protests.

"My real concern at a national level is that forces will not be able to deliver on their plans to only reduce specialist units after the Olympics, which were agreed recently," he said.

"My fear is that, as the cuts bite, they will have to reduce their specialist teams in that Olympic year. It will affect the security position.

"One issue that particularly strikes me is that I know a number of forces around the country, as a cost-saving measure, are looking at reducing their mounted sections, which I think is pretty short-sighted.

"That is my concern as an officer involved in policing the Olympics and it is a concern for me as a provincial chief constable who might have to look at a long, hot summer of discontent next year."

Funding cuts have also hit the region's fire brigades hard, and West Yorkshire's chief fire officer, Simon Pilling, warned last night that he was "very concerned about the future".

"The metropolitan fire authorities all face the largest reductions in grant, almost double that of the national average for fire services," he said.

The chairman of South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Authority, Jim Andrews, said: "The Government is expecting the metropolitan areas like South Yorkshire to absorb cuts of nearly 10 per cent in 2011/12."