Lincolnshire Police facing 'significant cuts to services'
Lincolnshire Police is facing "significant cuts to services" if it does not receive additional funding in 2019, its chief constable has warned.
Bill Skelly said the force was facing "stark choices" to balance the books. He said 60 police officers, 53 PCSOs and 30 staff posts would go over a three-year period unless the force secured a better funding deal. The government has increased funding by £3m from last year but Mr Skelly said a fairer deal was needed. Latest news and stories from Lincolnshire Lincolnshire Police received £113.9 in 2018/19, up from the previous year's £110.6m, but despite the increase Mr Skelly said the force needed to find savings of £16.8m over the next three years. "The savings cannot be achieved without a serious degradation of service," he said. "We have had a number of promises from central government over recent years around a safer level of funding for Lincolnshire." "Unfortunately, we have no extra cash coming in," he said. Mr Skelly also warned things like anti-social behaviour would not be a priority. He said the force would also look at reducing the cost of its contract with G4S, which includes call handling and custody operations. He said it was not a case of "crying wolf". "In the story there was a wolf and it did eventually come," he added. Lincolnshire Police published details of its position in a management plan, which every force in the country is required to do. Earlier this year, policing minister Nick Hurd iy was "intended that the funding formula will be revisited at the next spending review" due to take place in 2019.