Sussex: Police facing cuts of £9.4m

Wide-ranging cuts to policing in Sussex are needed to fill a multi-million pound "black hole" in funding caused by government cuts - reports The Argus.

MPs and the Police Federation reacted with fury to news that up to £9.4 million savings must be made by 2010.

Accountants Ernst & Young have already been brought in by Sussex Police to look at the problem and Deputy Chief Constable Geoff Williams has been tasked with leading the "2010 challenge".

The problem is caused by a funding gap between the money likely to be available from government grant and council tax and the amount required to maintain current spending levels.

Sussex Police says it wants to find ways of saving money which will have a minimal effect on frontline policing.

But cuts will have to be made when the projected funding problems begin in 2008 and the Ernst & Young report examined several options for what it described as "disinvestment opportunities".

Among the savings being looked at are:

* Reducing the opening hours of smaller police stations.
* Amalgamating Worthing and Adur districts, and a review of how the Gatwick district fits into the county's force.
* Reducing diversity training.
* Sharing the £500,000-a-year police helicopter with Kent and Surrey.
* Scrapping bonus payments to officers and changing the current shift pattern, described as "not fit for purpose".
* Closing a police training centre, based at a former nuclear bunker site in Kingstanding, near Duddleswell in Ashdown Forest.
* Closing the police's occupational health unit and library.
* Selling off old police station sites in Lewes, Worthing, Crowborough and Petworth - although the towns would be provided with new police stations.

Sussex Police says that if savings are not made it could find itself in the red by between £6.2m and £9.4m in 2010.

Deputy Chief Constable Williams said: "We remain committed to local neighbourhood policing and to strengthening protective services. But we must achieve this against a backdrop of diminishing resources.

Continued effort in reducing the overall budget will now become a regular feature of Force business."

Mark White, secretary of the Sussex Police Federation, said: "Like the police authority, we are disgusted with the lack of government financial support, given that Sussex is already one of the poorest-funded forces in England.

"The Government sets us more and more targets and hoops to jump through and yet it is not willing to give us the money to achieve this. It is disgraceful that when this country is facing the greatest terrorist threat it has ever known, we are expected to fight it with ever-dwindling funds.

"We are a frontline county in the fight against terrorism with our vast coastline and one of the busiest airports in the world. Surely ensuring that we receive adequate funding to continue that fight should be a priority."

MPs were equally furious with the plans.

Wealden MP Charles Hendry said: "This is a retrograde step. The police have been trying to provide longer opening hours and use stations as custody centres, particularly in Crowborough and Hailsham.

"It was starting to make people feel more confident about policing in rural areas and this will totally undermine all the good work. It will be greeted with great dismay."

Worthing West MP Peter Bottomley said of the proposal to merge districts: "MPs will be protesting to the Home Secretary that making a mess of our local policing is not something he needs to do. He should fight the Treasury if necessary."

Lewes MP Norman Baker said: "They are unwelcome and slightly desperate measures. I will strongly oppose any cuts to hours in police stations in my constituency.

"We should be going in the opposite direction, not having closed' signs all over the place. Ernst & Young needs to understand these are not disinvestment opportunities' but cuts."

Ernst & Young urged the police force to make sure that all planning around cuts "is clear and transparent" as this will "help to guard against potential concerns by those working for the force".

Look on bright side says hospital boss

The head of a hospital trust battling to get its finances under control has urged staff to look on the bright side following a series of cuts - reports The Argus.

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has been working to save £15 million and this has led to workers being made redundant and beds being closed.

The trust also has one of the highest MRSA rates in the country.

A consistently high number of bed-blocking patients have to stay in hospital longer than necessary until other organisations such as social services can sort out a care home place for them or provide proper support in their own home.

In a New Year message to staff, chief executive Peter Coles said improvements had been made but there was still a lot of work to be done and the next few months would be a challenge.

The message follows the news earlier this month that hundreds of hospital workers could strike after a union representative from GMB complained he was "frog marched" out of the building when he was made redundant.

Mark Thomas was escorted from the Royal Sussex by security guards after being called into a meeting and told he was losing his job as part of 500 cuts in posts at the trust. The trust plans to cut 40 jobs from its facilities department, where Mr Thomas worked, over the next month.

GMB branch secretary Mark Turner said: "Of course it has been tough but it has mainly been tough for those at the lower levels who are having to pay for the incompetence of management that allowed the finances to get into the state they did.

"Morale is at rock bottom at the moment and the next few months are going to be even harder."