LETTER: Serious questions need to be asked over policing and costs

Not for the first time - are there worries being expressed about the level of policing that is being provided to the long-suffering public of Cambridgeshire and indeed other similar

Rural counties - as the Chancellor gets ready if the rumours are correct to take as much as 40% from existing police budgets in the next two or three years to tackle “the deficit”.

Whilst there will always be occasions when the public will view with some healthy scepticism the calls from national policing council and others that patrol cars and community officers will disappear; when a motorway accident or indeed a demonstration here in Cambridge will suddenly produce “a raft of officers” no doubt on overtime. There has to be some very serious questions asked of both government and the police and crime commissioner - as to whether headquarters’ costs, senior management levels are as trim as they might be - and whether in fact the public of Cambridgeshire especially in our small towns never mind the villages are actually receiving anything approaching “value for money” for what we are paying in every month with precious little accountability!

Additionally - as a former JP and member of the police authority I am concerned and anxious that we could well be near the point of having very little policing and crime particularly effecting the person rising, because no one is around to prevent or protect - can this be right of course not so government needs to look at cutting waste in its own back yard first before hitting a key public service with more damaging cuts which will effect us all.

GEOFFREY HEATHCOTE

Cambridge