Greater Manchester Police staff told of job cuts

Chief Constable Peter Fahy has admitted the cuts would have an impact on policing

Hundreds of members of staff at Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have attended two mass meetings to find out how job cuts will affect them.

The Greater Manchester Police Authority (GMPA) has said the force will have to lose a quarter of its 12,000 staff, including frontline officers.

A total of 1,387 officers and 1,557 civilian posts could go.

GMP held two meetings for 1,900 staff at Bolton's Reebok Stadium and gave a breakdown of cuts in each branch.

Chief Constable Peter Fahy, Deputy Chief Constable Simon Byrne, and the chairman of the police authority, Councillor Paul Murphy spoke to staff during the two meetings.

The chief constable announced on Monday that 750 civilian employees and 309 officers would go by 2012, with more to follow.

He added that by the financial year 2014/15 there would be a 23% reduction in employee numbers.

Recruitment freeze

Staff members will have one-to-one meetings with their managers on Wednesday to find out what the future holds for them.

Jobs have been divided up into four categories.

In the first group posts will be unaffected, the second is made up of departments which will be merged, the third will be where posts are reduced and staff may have to reapply for their own job, and the fourth group will be posts which will disappear.

The job losses will form part of a huge programme of reform aimed at saving £134m in the wake of the government's spending review.

By law, police officers cannot be made redundant so the police authority expects the savings in frontline officers to come from natural wastage, a recruitment freeze and forced retirement for officers with more than 30 years of service.

The cuts have been outlined in a report by Mr Fahy and the police authority's treasurer. It is due to be presented to the authority at a meeting on 22 November.