Up to 400 police jobs face axe in £15m budget crunch

HUNDREDS of jobs are on the line after South Yorkshire Police announced budget cuts of £15 million for the coming year.

Up to 100 police officers and 289 civilian support staff are set to be axed within the next 12 months.

As well as absorbing the cuts, the force will have to spend up to £2 million policing the Liberal Democrat conference next month in Sheffield.

By 2015, there will be 400 fewer police officers and 700 police staff jobs will be axed from the current 5,600-strong workforce as the county’s police authority tries to save £40 million over four years.

The figures are even higher than union estimates, which initially suggested that around 900 jobs could be shed over the next four years.

The budget for 2011/12 has now been set at £256.95 million.

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The police authority, which oversees the force, said it had tried to create a “balanced budget” but it was “inevitable” services would be affected.

South Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Med Hughes said: “We have set the best that we could perhaps hope for in the circumstances.

“We want the chief constable to retain a balanced force which provides the full range of policing services.

“There is an inevitability about it that the service will be somewhat reduced, it is an emergency service and so the public’s reliance on that service will be affected.”

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