Thursday, 1 April 2010

That's a lot lot of cutting.

We're carrying a story today which is hardly breaking news - Leicestershire police are looking to slice £15 million of their spending.

They seem to have been cutting here and there for all the time I've been covering police matters.

Now it's official - they are to prepare for the anticipated public spending cuts by shaving £15 million of their budget in 2011/12.

I think it was two years ago they said they'd trimmed every last ounce of fat and they've been saying it at every opportunity ever since.

They've also been saying long and loud that they are not receiving the Government money they are entitled to. There have been many trips to the Home Office to plead their case.

In fact, they think they've lost £15 million over the past few years.

Well, now they've announced these cuts. It seems redundancies among the civvy staff are inevitable. Maybe as many as 150.

Police officers can't be made redundant, but you can run numbers down by operating a recruitment freeze, which they have been doing since November last year.

Officers have been saying for some time: "There's not enough of us."

Where is this leading us?

The crime figures look pretty good but things are obviously pretty bad when officers look around the room and think they need more bodies.

I spoke to a few civilian staff members about the cuts - which were announced yesterday - and they seemed pretty resigned to it and just hoped the redundancy notices don't come their way.

It's been a tough few years in the newspaper business these past few years so I know how that feels.

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