Essex police federation warns officers will transfer to London forces if allowances cut
It's after the force - and its commissioner - revealed on Tuesday (28 January) plans to make all 99 PCSOs redundant, cut 65 other staff roles, and reduce the pay of all other officers.
The policing minister has said forces need to make decisions locally on how many officers to have after some warned they will need to make cuts.
"I'm not pretending that it isn't difficult and challenging for police forces," says Dame Diana Johnson.
"Obviously PCCs and chief constables have to make decisions locally about what's the best makeup of their force in terms of police officers," she said.
She said the Government was "starting from a difficult position" after 14 years under the Conservatives but around £1 billion of funding is going to forces from April.
"Those police forces, and I'm very well aware of Essex and Lincolnshire, those police forces that are struggling, we want to work with them. We want to make this work.
"So we're having meetings with those police forces."
Speaking to Greatest Hits Radio, Chairwoman of the Essex Police Federation, Laura Heggie, says:
"Everyone's upset and confused, they don't understand why we're going to lose our PCSOs especially as, within the force, we all know how valuable they are.
"It's been said that we're not losing police officers as a result of this proposal. But the reality is we will. They're not going to be able to afford to stay, and will move transfer to London, or other occupations entirely.
Chief Constable Ben-James Harrington announced in December the possibly of cutting 200 officers "unless his force receives extra funding".
Both Mr Harrington and Ms Heggie that "the maths just doesn't add up".
The budget shortfall for Essex police is approximately £5.3million, Ms Heggie tells Greatest Hits Radio.
Ms Heggie continues: "these figures are reliant on the fact that we get the uplift for the full amount of the £14 for the preset for the council tax.
"If for any reason we don't get the full amount, there's going to be more cuts than we're currently saying.
With proposed cuts, Ms Heggie tells us: "We're only going to have four stations that will have a front office open that the public can actually go into.
The proposed redundancies - by the Chief Constable and PFCC - are subject to consultation. A decision is expected by February 4 2025.
After the decision is made, there's a 30 day consultation period. Following that those being made redundant will receive three months notice.
The Government will invest an extra £100 million into neighbourhood policing as it seeks to boost the number of officers on the ground.
This adds to £100 million announced in December for England and Wales to put 13,000 more police officers on the streets by 2029.
The new investment is scheduled for the next financial year and each police force will set out plans to use it to increase patrols by early spring.
National Police Chiefs' Council lead for finance, Chief Constable Paul Sanford, said then the funding settlement presented "real challenges" for policing and would "inevitably lead to cuts across forces".
Policing minister Dame Diana Johnson has said an extra £100 million, approximately, in funding for neighbourhood policing will help to target antisocial behaviour (ASB) and "record-breaking" levels of shoplifting.
However Ms Heggie argues cutting all PCSOs is ""stripping the heart out of neighbourhood policing.
The force has managed through efficiencies to muster up £7mil but we're still £5.3mil short.
"At the end of the day the Chief isn't in a position to provide, what the government are asking him to provide, on the money he's been given
"The government are going to have to pay for what they want" says Ms Heggie.