A major UK police force is set to lose 70% of its PCSO community beat 'bobbies' – after claiming Rachel Reeves and Labour are to give them £3m less than they expected a year. Last November the Daily Express revealed Cheshire Police feared it had to axe 60 police community support officers, from 87 jobs to 27, to save £13m over the next four years. 

As police officers cannot be made redundant – because they are crown servants – Cheshire Police said their budget squeeze means they had to lose 'police staff' instead, like PCSOs. Now although 10 more roles have been secured, the force fears 50 PCSOs may still have to be made redundant – after Chief Constable Mark Roberts bemoaned a new £3m-a-year black hole due to the government offering less than had expected in mid-December's funding allocation. Ironically in June 2024 new Labour Home Secretary Yvette Cooper vowed to fund 13,000 new neighbourhood cops and PCSOs back onto the beat.

The area's Police and Crime Commissioner Dan Price has told a meeting this week that 10 of those PCSOs roles would remain – and he had written to the government demanding more funding.

Mr Price said he was also seeking to increase the 'policing precept' - the amount local residents contribute to local policing through their council tax bill – to try to save the remaining under threat 50 roles.

Chief Constable Mark Roberts stressed that axing the 50 roles was a "financially driven decision" and "not a policy decision" and purely down to a decrease in funding.

Speaking at an extraordinary meeting of the Cheshire Police and Crime Panel, Mr Price said the saving of roles was "not an accident" but a "direct result" of discussions between himself and the force.

"l have listened and acted and will continue to fight for the funding Cheshire deserves," he said.

The Chief Constable also attended the meeting and laid out the force's financial position, saying it was to receive £3m less from the government than it had expected when the funding allocation was set out in mid-December.

The senior officer also said Cheshire had the 11th lowest precept out of the 43 forces in the country.

He added: "In terms of our precept, that share of funding has risen from 30% of our budget in 2010 to 43% of the budget borne by the local taxpayer."

The chief constable said that 52% of the budget is spent on staffing and pointed out that savings would have to come from police staff redundancies.

Police officers cannot be made redundant because they are crown servants. He highlighted areas where there were large numbers of staff, including the control room and online investigations into child abuse.

He said if the performance of the 101 and 999 call centre drops "people can die", and with a reduction of staff investigating digital media, there could be a backlog in those cases.

"There's difficult choices, there's no easy way out," he said.

"If I reduce staff it would impact service. We are doing it in a way to try and maximise the service we give to the people of Cheshire."

Mr Price said he had written to the government to "request flexibility" around the precept charged to pay for policing.

"This is an exceptional step only a handful of PCCs have been willing to do this," he said. "It may be less than the price of a takeaway coffee each month and I'm hoping to save all 87 PCSO roles."

A consultation into next year's precept is asking if residents could pay a little more. Mr Price added: "The experience I've had so far says people do want to save PCSOs."

Their consultation runs until 23 January.

Last autumn Cheshire Police Roberts added: "PCSOs make a significant contribution to our communities in Cheshire.

"This is by maintaining visibility, gathering local intelligence, and fostering relationships with residents in support of policing.

"Therefore, this is not a decision we take lightly, but a necessary one, despite significant efforts of the force to secure appropriate levels of savings required to balance our budget this year.

"Cheshire Police has faced significant financial challenges, with a cumulative reduction of £115million since 2008/09, and a further £13million in savings required by 2029.