Wiltshire Chief Constable Patrick Geenty is warning that his force is being pushed to the limit by continuing funding government cuts.

Chancellor George Osborne’s austerity measure has seen Wiltshire being forced to cut more than £15 million for its £106 million annual budget by 2015 – but now it has been told it will have to trim another six per cent by 2016, meaning it will have saved almost £21 million in total.

He said: “It has been a difficult three years so far since we embarked on saving this money and my officers have performed extremely well under the pressure.

“But it is getting to the point where I have to say that if there are further cuts we will have to look at how we can fulfil our statutory requirements.
“First and foremost our job is to keep the people of Wiltshire safe and that will become extremely difficult.

“If we find ourselves in the position of having to trim our budget further beyond 2015/16 I am going to have to talk to [crime commissioner] Angus Macpherson about how we get more funds.”

Last Thursday the Office of National Statistics said crime in Wiltshire dropped by 5.6 per cent year on year, a source of pride to the new chief constable.

He said: “We have the second lowest number of officers in the country but I’m very proud of how they have performed.”

But he is concerned that the figures will be used by the government to demonstrate that fewer officers has no effect on crime prevention or detection and that will be used as a reasoning for further budget cuts.

He said: “We have asked a huge amount of our officers through the changes that have taken place. We are asking them to travel further to the new policing hubs and work different shifts but we cannot keep on stretching them.”

Mr Geenty said he is continual discussion with the crime commissioner about the effects of the cuts and will also lobby through the Association of Chief Police Officers.

He is also launching a new four-year police plan that will deliver the priorities set out by Mr Macpherson. Among these will be stepping up crime prevention.

“We have been reactive in the past but if you don’t change what you do then you will get the same results. Our response times are good but we can get better in other areas, and we will, given the right resources.”