Police face £50m cuts

SUSSEX Police Authority is looking at building a shared operating model with Surrey for elements of protective services.

It also wants to enhance services through joint working with Surrey Police, to make the services more resilient and cost effective.

Faced with cutting 50 million from the Sussex Police Authority budget over the next five years, Chief Constable Martin Richards outlined this and other proposals on Thursday last week.

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He had earlier told police staff by email that Sussex must make savings of 50m by 2015.

Mr Richards said job losses were likely but public service remained a priority.

He said he would not know the final level of savings required until after the government's spending review was completed.

Referring to the shared operations, he said that partnerships were working successfully elsewhere in the country.

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He said: "Sussex Police, like the rest of the public sector, is facing really difficult financial challenges in the future. It is not going to be easy but we are absolutely committed to putting the needs of the public first as we make tough choices."

Chairman of the Sussex Police Federation Insp Bob Brown said frontline services would be protected.

Read the full report in the West Sussex Gazette.