Dyfed-Powys Police chief Ian Arundale makes cuts warning

Dyfed-Powys Police chief constable Ian Arundale says he is not scaremongering

Dyfed-Powys Police faces cutting jobs, closing more stations and scrapping its helicopter if it does note get a minimum 5% council tax precept, chief constable Ian Arundale has warned.

He says the precept rise is needed to limit the 20% UK government spending cuts and not to achieve growth.

He addressed leaders of Pembrokeshire, Carmarthenshire, Powys and Ceredigion councils, but denied scaremongering.

The force's authority will decide next month how much precept to grant.

"I am not scaremongering I am genuinely concerned about how we will be able to effectively protect our communities and bring criminals to justice if we have reduce our strength any more than what we already have to," said Mr Arundale.

"The funding crisis is a genuine watershed moment for policing in mid and west Wales and that is why I am appealing to our politicians to award the force a 5% precept rise, so we can continue to safeguard our communities."

Compulsory redundancies

He said if the force did not receive that amount, they would have to consider a number of options.

That includes invoking a statutory regulation to forcibly retire officers with 30 years' service, compulsory redundancies for police staff and taking police officers from front line duties to backfill their roles.

It could also involve closing police stations, removing the force helicopter and reducing support for cold case reviews.

But the helicopter is already under threat from being scrapped in 2014 under plans by the UK government to order police forces to share resources.

Mr Arundale has already said a privately-financed police station in Ammanford that costs hundreds of thousands of pounds each year is not value for money.

The force must find savings of £34m by 2015 and £13m in each subsequent year.

"I welcome the sympathetic response from all four county councils to my request for a minimum 5% precept rise," he added.

"However, nobody should be under any illusions, we still have to cut costs significantly but at least a 5% increase in the precept would mean our situation won't get any worse.

"Local authorities understand that the financial crisis is hitting the force hard yet policing and fighting crime remains a top priority for the public."