The reality of Devon & Cornwall Police failing to receive what had been hoped for in this year’s policing funding settlement awarded by the government means that behind the scenes, much is being done to see how it can achieve savings of £10 million.

To put that in context, it is around two percent of the overall budget of £462 million.

While some police forces in England have had to cut back on police officer numbers to help towards balancing budgets, this is not the case for Devon, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

The force has retained its record number of 3,610 officers and plans remain for an extra 100 police officers and PCSOs in neighbourhood policing roles.

Last September, chief constable James Vaughan announced ambitious plans to get more officers back on the streets by reducing the number of senior ranks and returning officers to the frontline.

The intention is that by April 2027, an extra 60 constables will be on the frontline.

On March 27, a passing out parade saw seven new PCSOs celebrate the completion of initial training at Middlemoor with 130 new starters are being welcomed at Middlemoor to begin their training at the end of the month.

The government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee to recruit 13,000 additional officers by 2029 was scrapped in January. It provided funding to forces meeting headcount targets which Devon & Cornwall was achieving. The grant has been replaced with ring-fenced funding for neighbourhood officers instead.

While this is welcomed, it has created a shortfall within Devon & Cornwall Police as money previously linked to the recruitment of extra officers has been reduced from £13.2 million to £8.6 million, a funding gap equivalent to the loss of 66 officers.

I eagerly await the outcome of the government’s commitment to review the outdated and unfair Police Funding Formula which this year left Devon & Cornwall Police with one of the lowest government funding settlements for the size and scale of our area nationally, and such a significant budget shortfall.

Sadly, most local authorities have not had appropriate settlements; especially because rurality and sparsity has not been taken into account.

This year, I have had to reluctantly ask council taxpayers to pay more to just help me maintain the high level of police officers while still having to find large savings elsewhere in the organisation. Considering nearly 85 percent of the budget is staffing, it does not leave much room for manoeuvre.