SOUTH Gloucestershire could lose nine of its Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) under council budget cuts.

The district authority needs to save £277,000 from its anti-social behaviour and community safety team, from just over £1million to £801,400, and is proposing to axe all council-funded PCSOs as the ‘least damaging’ option.

South Gloucestershire Council currently pays Avon and Somerset Constabulary £287,000 a year in contracts for nine PCSOs, in addition to 40 police-funded ‘essential’ posts which the force says it needs to meet operating targets.

In a public consultation on the cuts, the council said: “Savings of this scale mean that we must completely re‐think our approach given the challenges ahead.

“We recognise that we can’t continue to do everything that we have done in the past, much as we might wish we could. We need to prioritise our actions and activities where we can deliver most benefit for local people whilst meeting our savings targets.

“The current preferred option for achieving the required level of saving is to withdraw the funding paid to the police for the provision of nine additional PCSOs in South Gloucestershire.”

The savings could come from cuts to other anti-social behaviour and community safety projects including street marshall schemes in Chipping Sodbury and Kingswood, council-operated CCTV, domestic abuse services and support for hate crime victims.

However, the authority, which delayed the cuts for a year in January, said a previous consultation found most residents of South Gloucestershire thought the loss of nine PCSO posts was the less damaging than cuts to any other services within the department.

People who responded to last year’s survey also said domestic abuse services and support for victims should be protected above all else.

Avon and Somerset police said it could not comment on specific or speculative budget savings imposed on the force and other services like local councils.

Police and Crime Commissioner Sue Mountstevens, who has responsibility to set the policing part of the council and police budget, said pressure to find £40million of savings over the next four years would mean job cuts.

She said: “With cost pressures from pay, increments and national insurance changes we could be forced to lose hundreds of police officers and staff over the next four years. The challenge of the comprehensive spending review will force a radical rethink about the delivery of police services.

“Avon and Somerset will continue to be innovative and seek to collaborate with other police forces and partners to maintain services but ultimately the workforce will be smaller going forward.”

Thornbury and Yate’s Conservative MP Luke Hall told the Gazette: “I think it is right that local authorities play their part in eradicating the £78billion deficit and that they are able to take the decisions on how those efficiency savings are made.

“Policing services are a fantastic example of how we can deliver more for less. Crime is down by more than 30 per cent under this government and anti-social behaviour in Yate has fallen year on year over the last five years.

“I will be speaking regularly to South Gloucestershire Council to ensure that frontline services are prioritised for protection.”