WILTSHIRE Chief Constable Pat Geenty has said the force has challenging savings and difficult decisions to make when police budgets are slashed again in the New Year.

The total cash reduction from this year to next for policing in the UK is to be a massive £299m, what Chief Constable Geenty described as a stark reminder of the realities of austerity.

He added that he will explore all options after learning that the government is to take a further £3m from the county’s police budget – 5.1 per cent of their total funding.

In a statement Chief Constable Geenty said: “By 2017, Wiltshire Police will have lost 25% of its budget, whilst facing increasing demand for services.

“We have reduced staff numbers and reorganised and transformed the way in which we work in order to minimise the impact of the cuts on the delivery of frontline services to the public.

“However, it is clear to me that in the face of these new reductions, I will have to explore all options in order to continue to protect the public of Wiltshire, in the knowledge that we will have between £3-4m to save during 2015/16 dependent on the Commissioner’s decision further to consultation on the police element of council tax in the new year.

“Wiltshire Police will need to be courageous, ambitious and above all innovative in order to meet these savings targets.

“We will continue with our programme of transformation which demands that we think in radical new ways about the future model of policing in Wiltshire – and this will at times mean we will need to make difficult but necessary decisions.

Chief Constable Geenty added that most forces would prefer money the government intends to spend on the Independent Police Complaints Commission staying with frontline policing and said that savings of £7.8million were expected between 2016 and 2018.