Union warns of ‘serious damage to local policing’ in Peterborough and Cambridgeshire due to proposed cuts

UNISON is calling for urgent funding to be delivered to Cambridgeshire police after it announced the number of PCSOs would be reduced from 80 to 40 to help tackle a deficit of £6.6 million.

Police chief constable Nick Dean has previously admitted that the cuts will “have an impact on policing” but insisted the job losses will be mitigated by a rise in officers as part of the Government’s national allocation of 20,000 more roles.

This could see a further 82 people brought into the force next year.

Further changes which are being introduced include scrapping the police community safety team and closing enquiry offices in March, Wisbech and Huntingdon.

UNISON has now written to police minister Kit Malthouse to call for action.

Its letter states that the threatened staff are “integral to neighbourhood policing, a service the Government has promised to protect since 2010”.

It adds: “Policing is a team effort, as you understand well, and those 20,000 extra officers won’t be effective if the team working with them continues to be cut.”

The Government has recently given local authorities £30 million to recruit ‘Covid marshals’, which UNISON argues “could have been much better spent saving PCSOs … who are uniquely well placed to help enforce Covid restrictions”.

UNISON national police and justice officer Ben Priestley said: “These cuts threaten the jobs of people who actually go out into communities, schools, youth clubs and local businesses to build trust with the police force.

“It’s those local communities – and especially Cambridgeshire’s most vulnerable residents – that will suffer if the jobs go.”