West Mercia Police to cut 287 jobs

A police force is cutting 287 jobs as it tries to make savings of almost £10m.

West Mercia Police, which covers Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Shropshire, announced the cuts saying they will take place over three years.

A spokesman said 189 civilian posts would go and 98 (out of 2,400) officer roles.

A Police Federation spokesman said any announcement of job cuts was "sad news".

Andy White said: "It is clearly a sad day especially when over several years all we have been doing is building the the number of police officers to combat all the crime going on in the West Mercia area."

'Senior management roles'

He said he understood the jobs would go through retirements.

The West Mercia police spokesman said the savings had to be made due to "the reality of of reduced levels of funding being available in the future".

He added the officer roles were office based, such as senior management and training staff.

"The vast majority of these roles will disappear through natural staff turnover," he said.

In a statement the force said that a review had highlighted that £9.8m could be saved over the next three years through internal restructuring.