Fewer cops for Notts

Nottinghamshire will have 111 fewer police officers.

Next year's budget is to be the toughest yet according to Paddy Tipping, the county police and crime commissioner.

The number of full time equivalent police officers was 2,033 in 2014/15 but will be at 1,922 in 2015-16.

The number of full time equivalent civilian police staff was at 1,597 in 2014-15, but will be at 1,512 in 2015-16.

The proposed budget for 2015/16 is £188.2m.

Amounting to £5.6m less than the 2014/15 budget, it amounts to a loss of around £10m when taking into account inflation and a £6.8m cut in the Government's funding grant announced in December, Mr Tipping said.

"In all, since 2010-11, Nottinghamshire has seen its funding dive by over £42m," he said.

Chief Constable Chris Eyre said: "We will see fewer people employed within Nottinghamshire Police in the future, and there are some significant challenges ahead."

Mr Tipping, with the support of public feedback, intends to increase the police portion of council tax by 1.98%. This rise amounts to £3.42 a year for an average household, taking the total amount of council tax paid towards policing for a Band D property to £176.40.

72% of the funding for the budget comes from the Government, and the remaining 28% from the precept.

The new county police commander, Chief Superintendent Mark Holland had good news for Newark - the town's police station set to become one of proposed centralised response hubs.

Some police stations, including Ollerton, will cease to be response bases.

Mr Holland said fewer response officers would be required.

However, he said Newark could actually see a small rise in the number of police officers.

He said Castle Ward, where Newark's night-time economy is based and where there are some areas of deprivation - required continued police attention as it is a Nottinghamshire crime hotspot.

Mr Holland also re-affirmed the custody suite at Newark Police Station would remain although response officers would hand over prisoners to free them up for the next call rather than spending time booking-in prisoners, interviewing them and waiting for a decision from the CPS on charging.

Bingham's response officers will come from further away - Riverside Police Station in Nottingham. Currently officers are based in West Bridgord but the Riverside will cover an area from Burton Joyce to the county border at Bottesford.

Mr Holland, a former Newark and Sherwood superintendent, said officers would be out patrolling and encouraged to spend time in local police stations too, so would never be very far away.

Twenty eight beat managers are to be lost across the force.

That move could see some communities in rural areas like those in Newark and Sherwood and Rushcliffe sharing beat officers.

"We are creating beat manager teams however," said Chief Superintendent Holland. "So if there were a particular problem surrounding anti-social behaviour in Bingham Market Place for instance, the team would be sent to assist the local beat officer for as long as they were required."

Chief Superintendent Holland is now responsible for delivering the force's change policies he was instrumental in drawing up.

He calculates the force could reasonably attend 80,000 fewer calls a year through working alongside other organisations in its control room to direct people to the service they actually require rather than just dispatching a policeman.