South Yorkshire police gear up to make £15m cuts

South Yorkshire Police Authority has been working with Chief Constable Med Hughes for the last 12 months on managing the pending cuts and they are gearing up to make redundancies.

When the Government makes its final announcement, it is expected that cuts of up to £15 million will be required in next year’s South Yorkshire budget.

Members of the authority recognise that the demands for policing will not reduce and they could increase over the next few years as other local services are cut back.

The service cannot rely on other agencies to step in to plug any gaps because they will be facing similar cuts in their resources, say police bosses.

Charles Perryman, chairman of South Yorkshire Police Authority, said: “The force has made impressive progress in the last few years on cutting crime and increasing public confidence.

“We don’t want to lose that momentum if we can avoid it. 

“We know that the money will reduce and the challenge for the authority and the force will be to get the most out of every pound. 

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“We will be asking the Chief Constable to concentrate his resources on maintaining safer communities and we will be supporting him in looking at new ways of working with partners to protect services. 

“While we will be setting targets for cost reduction and improvement in productivity, we recognise that at some point over the next few years it may be necessary to review the range and the level of services that are affordable. 

“We will support the force in minimising the impact of any reductions which are forced on us because of the financial situation.”

Chief Constable Med Hughes added: “The next couple of years will be a challenge to our resourcefulness. We don’t engage in wasteful or unnecessary activity. 

“Local policing has developed in a balanced way for very good reasons and there are risks that service options the public have come to rely on are cut out completely.

“Nevertheless, we have to be realistic and every public service will have to take a hard look at what it does and how it does it. We will work closely with the police authority to head off any adverse impact.”

Redundancy plans have been revealed in a report to the authority meeting.

A decision on whether appeals against redundancy will be heard by the police authority or by the police force itself has been requested.

The Chief Constable and authority chief executive and treasurer Bill Wilkinson prepared a report on the issue.

Their report says that there could be “a large number of hearings” and expresses concern that it might prove impossible to hear them all before the notice period expires, which would breach employment law.

The report states that some compulsory redundancies may be needed to help the force make the required financial savings.

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