West Mercia Police to axe nearly 300 jobs
Tuesday 7th September 2010, 3:10PM BST.
WEST MERCIA Police is to axe nearly 300 jobs as the force looks to save up to £10 million over the next three years.
The force says 98 police officers will lose their jobs, but the number of bobbies on the beat will not be affected. Another 189 civilian staff at the force will lose their jobs.
West Mercia Police says the changes it is making across Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin, Herefordshire and Worcestershire will improve the service as well as save money.
Police chiefs said the job losses will largely come through natural staff turnover and retirements and will mainly come through reducing senior positions and training posts.
The cuts are part of a drive by police to save £9.8 million over three years.
Chief Constable Paul West said: “The force’s new operating model will allow us to continue to deliver a high quality policing service throughout West Mercia.
“There will still be clearly identified senior officers responsible for local command and at the same time we will significantly restructure the ways in which we support frontline officers and staff.
“These changes will make West Mercia Police more streamlined and effective, and will free up officers to focus upon operational policing and operational command.”
Mr West said the force was facing an “important period” in its development, with new challenges including additional budget cuts which will be announced by the coalition Government later in the year.
Along with other forces in the West Midlands, West Mercia is investigating whe-ther further savings can be achieved through enhanced regional collaboration.
Andy White of the West Mercia Police Federation, said: “From our point of view any cuts from police posts is not a welcome thing.”
Sheila Blagg, chairman of West Mercia Police Authority, added: “The changes we are outlining are important and will position the force to deliver policing services effectively in a difficult economic climate.
“West Mercia Police enjoys a national reputation as a value-for-money force and a high priority has been given to protecting frontline services.”
By Suzanne Roberts
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Not what I would call good news.
Will we expect a reduction in our Council Tax bill next near?. Sadly I fear not.
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good job the number of bobbies on the beat won’t be affected we never see them now.Get rid of the volvo’s,beemer’s and high power range rover’s and replace them with the cheaper and reliable skoda’s there’s a saving. perhaps a few mountain bikes for some of the more portley bobbies i seem to see more of.
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with reference to the cars.. the west mercia always chase up the best deals from manufacturers and this year BMW offered an unbelievable deal wich would save the force more money than if they used Vauxhal or skoda
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Less beemer’s more bikes
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Fewer Beemers, not less, and there is no apostrophe in Beemers.
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You have to admire the chutzpah of these Public Relations Officers (I wonder if any of *them* will be getting the chop? One suspects not….)
300 jobs “axed” and cuts of £10 million over the next three years and they say this will “…improve the service”???!
Well no doubt we’ll see if that’s true in time. However, if it IS true that cuts of £10 million and 300 jobs will ‘improve’ the service, how is it that the police have had so many people on the payroll for so long?
Like most PR releases, these statements are worthless. I’m sure it will become apparent to us all whether it is the backroom jobs that really get cut, or whether front line policing is really where the cuts will show….
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You will probably find that they will become more and more evident in their spin if discontent in the police increases.
It has become obvious that certain PRO will only answer questions if they can put a ‘positive’ spin on these, ask them a difficult question and they’ll leave it hoping that you’ll forget about it.Just listen to the local radio,it won’t take long for an example to be aired.
The vast majority of police officers and police staff work Mon-Fri 9-5, if they spread out the working day/week smaller premises could be used which incur lower running costs ( and provide better cover into the bargain).
Just drive past any police station after about 6pm and just see how many parking spaces there are and how many of the offices are in darkness,it will be a real eye-opener.
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Buy less donuts…that has to save a few quid.
Can’t help but notice that despite all this “we have to cut back and save money” there are a hell of a lot of brand new patrol cars on the roads…
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How ironic this story is next to one about a murder being investigated by police!!
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notgood
more condem cuts more false economy, when millions of pounds worth of crime is committed how will that effect the national debt?
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Congratulations to all those Tory voters
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On behalf of all the Tory voters, I’d like to ask all the Labour voters if they wouldn’t mind having a word with their party and find out where all our money has gone please.
Ditch the CSO’s for a start (chocolate teapot springs to mind). Plus I’m sure it doesn’t take 2 coppers to sit in hiding waiting for someone to speed past them – Sherlock Holmes they ain’t!
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what for, ousting an ineffective government that spent all our money and left us in a massive debt
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What good news,300 Social workers to go, [Police] It’s made my day, Perhaps now we can get the rest of them out of their cars and on their pushbikes, or god forbid their FEET and
lets SEE them on the STREET preventing and tackling CRIME which we pay them to do.Lets go back to the days of the proper Police Constable on the beat.
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Regardless of whatever we are told there will be several staff who will do not really provide VFM (value for money), there are likely to be any number of officers who probably haven’t ventured outside the police station since the millennium, other than standing guard over the prize winning chrysanthemums at the flower show.
There is no incentive for office based officers to go back into front line patrolling. They sometimes get paid more as they have more time in than the young bucks working 24/7, some get to pick their hours and work monday to Friday, is it any wonder people complain that they never see an officer out and about if only 30-40% of police officers actually get out and about in uniform?
I can’t see any of the PR jobs being culled, it has become an industry within a service and they have convinced the hierarchy that they can’t do without them; the writing was on the cards when they dropped the term ‘force’ because it wasn’t cuddly fluffy bunny enough for the new elite. The term force provides an image of strength, of direction, service meanwhile provides and image of inertness, making the end-user feel in control, is that what we really want?
I wonder whether we’ll again see the thousands of pounds spent locally on radio adverts telling us not to drink and drive, surely if people haven’t got the message into their thick skulls since 1967, what good is it repeating itself?
So many more questions and only one lifetime to ask them in…….
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This really saddens me. I personally feel that the government are doing too much too quickly. I’m sure cuts are essential as my job has recently seen them however this is ‘ott’. What cuts like this also do is limit natural progression and career opportunities within the organisation. People will be expected to be front line officers and not get chance to experience other areas….. Good luck to those in the firing line!!
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Remember when you can’t gey a police response that it’s the Con Dem government that has forced the cuts.
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We could pay for them out of all that money the labour government left behind – oh, wait…….. that’s right it was record amounts of debt…. my mistake.
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Arm yourselves, the only chance we have anymore is to protect ourselves as best we can..
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This will not make the slightest difference to the public perception of, or service from the Police. The police “lost the plot years ago” and for the benefit of Port Hill Boy, the rot set in years ago under a Labour Government who would have been required to make similar cuts if they had managed to wriggle in again. Given the establishment of Police and civilian staff together with their job descriptions, I could make massive savings without leaving my seat with most of the jobs going from civilian staff who fill some of the ridiculous (and highly paid), politically correct and “non-jobs” imposed on them by successive Labour Home Secretaries and HMIs.
If the Police are to be brought back to a position of efficiency and effectiveness, the culture and ethos needs to change root and branch and a start could be made on the scruffy, undignified, couldn’t care less appearance of most of them.
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The Thin blue line getting ever thinner.
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Some of the issues to consider are if efficiency savings to be carried out why weren’t they carried out before or is it a case of the Kings new clothes?
West Mercia has, unlike the majority of the nation, lived within its means and salted a few quid away here and there for that rainy day, I just wonder though if vast savings are to be made, why they weren’t aiming higher earlier on.
The police don’t have public relations officers they are press officers, they don’t speak directly to the public, they merely pass that buck to the papers and radio stations to do. Their success is measured by how many ‘positive’ outcomes they can get into the public domain, that is why we are force fed such drivel from time to time.
Many have no or little experience of actual police work and now The Bill has vanished from our screens they will have to ‘ask a policeman’ what happens next.
As for the BMW/Volvo v Skoda argument, sometimes the former will come up with excellent fleet deals, we’re not talking of going in and ordering three 1.4 Fabias, these fleets are sometimes offered in their hundreds to multiple forces…sorry…services. and whilst you may say why not buy Skoda’s in their hundreds, the idea of a police fleet is to keep them on the road, a lot of these patrol cars will be clocking up 100+K per year, year upon year, or would you prefer to buy a new Skoda each and every year, they’re good, but not that good.
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