Federation will fight tooth and nail against further cuts

FURTHER cuts to South Yorkshire Police will be fought “tooth and nail” by the local branch board, Steve Kent, Federation Chairman has said.

Steve was talking after news broke that forces could lose a further 10,000 police officers to pay for  a pensions shortfall.

Since 2010 the government has cut police funding by 19%, but forces have been now told that they must fund a £420m pensions shortfall – which could leave constabularies with 1970’s workforce numbers.

Steve was unable to comment on specifics of the situation at South Yorkshire Police, as no plans have been announced yet, but he said if the force have to pay for this, “it will impact on future plans”.

He said: “For me this is a clear illustration of the short-sightedness in relation to the introduction of the new pension scheme. If I recall they were warned at the time from the Federation, and others, that pension membership rates could drop as a result. This is coupled with the poor pay for new recruits that has led to a number of officers I know personally who have dropped out of this scheme.

“The knock-on effect of that is that the funds needed now are shrinking and that’s probably one of the reasons for this cost shortfall.”

“This should not now be funded by the forces with stretched budgets, and definitely not by a pension contribution increase by officers. The government needs to accept responsibility for the mistake that they’ve made and they need to repair the damage themselves.”

The public is aware of how stretched South Yorkshire has become, and that the force is at “rock bottom”, Steve said.

He added: “Any future cuts would be fought tooth and nail by myself and the Police Federation of England and Wales. I don’t think we’re going to lose any more officers necessarily as a result of this, I just think it’s going to take a bit of fighting from us just to make sure, to raise awareness nationally and to make sure that the public are on our side.

“I think the tide is changing. I think the public are seeing the sort of situation we’re in now and are in support of us. We are fighting in our members’ corner and we’re not going to accept any more cuts. We want more cops, not more cuts. Simple as that.”