A SENIOR Hampshire Police officer has warned his force is facing budget cuts of around 10 per cent.

Assistant Chief Constable David Pryde was speaking at a meeting for Winchester and East Hampshire’s Neighbourhood Watch coordinators on Thursday (NOV 7).

He said Hampshire Constabulary’s budget currently stands at about £300m and it must slash that by another £25m.

The last four years have already seen cutbacks to the tune of £55m.

“The next £25m is going to be quite difficult and complex. That’s why the chief constable has given a mandate to senior officers to go away and come up with a plan,” he said.

Coordinators sought reassurance that the number of bobbies on the beat would not be affected.

“The last place we’re going to take people from if we can possibly avoid it is the frontline, but I cannot give you a guarantee in terms of numbers.

“All we do know is that it’s going to be jolly difficult,” Mr Pryde said.

The county’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Simon Hayes, also attended the event at Perins School. He said he could minimise the impact of budget cuts through efficiency savings.

“I’m looking at the 150 odd buildings the constabulary owns and seeing if they’re in the right state. Where they’re not, we will move them. We’re talking to every district and local authority to see where we can have a police presence in other places,” he said.

“We need to have a professional estate manager to come in and deal with buildings so that senior police officers are not having to bother themselves with delivering maintenance of buildings.”

He added: “Already, in beginning to think about that, we have saved ourselves something in the region of £40m. That’s £40m we will not have to borrow.”

Mr Hayes, who is soon to mark one year in office, also praised the neighbourhood watch scheme and said he would seek public consultation before deciding on a strategy for coping with further cuts.

Bob Combes, chairman of Hampshire Neighbourhood Watch, said: “Simon is a good friend of neighbourhood watch. Part of his role is to engage the community and he is using neighbourhood watch as a good start.”