CHESHIRE Constabulary will have 70 fewer police officers next year as spending cuts begin to bite.

And Chief Constable David Whatton says there will also be a reduction of up to 200 civilian staff over the next 18 months.

This year alone the budget has been slashed by £6.7m but there is a prospect of 25% Home Office cuts in future with the outcome of next month’s government’s comprehensive spending review eagerly awaited.

Mr Whatton told The Chronicle: “We are working hard to minimise the impact on operational policing as much as possible.” But he warned: “I don’t think it will be possible not to have any impact at all.”

This year there has only been one intake of police officer recruits which, taken together with retirements, will mean about 70 fewer officers by March 31 next year.

Even before the new government, Cheshire Constabulary had embarked on its transformation project to remove waste and less useful activity, cut operational overheads and create a structure delivering a cost-effective service.

This means a reorganisation of back-room functions like human resources and finance and ‘middle office’ functions like forensic science resulting in fewer civilian roles.

Unison, the union which represents civilians, argues police officers will be forced back behind desks to take up the slack rather than being on the streets.

Mr Whatton can’t guarantee this won’t happen to an extent, but added: “We will be doing everything we can to stop people going back into the office.”

He stressed that neighbourhood policing teams will remain the “building block” of the force. And he hopes an agreement can be reached for local authorities to continue contributing towards the funding of PCSOs.

But ‘tough’ decisions could include closing some police station front counters and instead providing an alternative by, for example, sharing facilities with the council.

On a positive note, Mr Whatton says crime in Cheshire continues to fall and the Constabulary is being helped by a relaxation in the auditing regime which previously meant considerable resources going into proving the force was delivering.