West Mercia local policing areas to change

The local policing areas in West Mercia will change from five to two as the force aims to make £2.3m in savings.

Currently, the area is split into Herefordshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, North Worcestershire and South Worcestershire. However, this will now change to two community policing areas – Herefordshire/Worcestershire and Shropshire/Telford and Wrekin.

As well as changes to the operational policing model, back-office functions that currently have civilians in posts may be also replaced by police officers ‘in order to add value, including the power to arrest’.

This means that around  150 staff posts may be removed. More than 40 of the posts are currently vacant and will not be backfilled, while around 50 new staff posts will be created under Operation Franklin.

Temporary Chief Constable Richard Cooper said the proposed job cuts was “a difficult decision” and had not been designed to impact on the service to the public.

“The underlying theme is the desire to make the organisation more resilient and feel more resilient so those who work for me feel they are part of a cohesive team, and those in the community feel a greater sense of the size and scope of West Mercia Police,” said T/Chief Const Cooper.

“We would have done this anyway, but there is a clear need for any operating model to be affordable within its budget. So we’ve taken the approach to look at how things might be structured and within our budget planning process, rather than looking at what might be reduced.

“We want to ensure there is more consistent practice, and there is less need to backfill those critical functions around response.

“The way we were thinking of doing this was by moving from five local policing areas to two, each headed by a chief superintendent.

“That will enable us to be more resilient in terms of backfilling roles with a bigger pool of officers to draw on, and the boundaries that exist within our geography become less prohibitive in terms of moving one resource from one area to the other.”

The force’s budget plans, put together by Police and Crime Commissioner, John Campion, have been backed by the West Mercia Police and Crime Panel.

It includes a council tax rise of almost 5 per cent for the next financial year, meaning that anyone living in an average Band D property will pay an extra £14 a year.