POLICING cuts have seen the number of bobbies on the beat in Bury slashed by 32 since 2010.

New figures, released by Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd, revealed the scale of savings which have seen around 1,500 police officers lost from the streets of Greater Manchester.

The overall number of police officers policing Bury has fallen by 32 since 2010 – 313, to 281, a drop of just more than 10 per cent. Police constables make up 23 of the 32 lost jobs.

Yesterday, Police and Crime Commissioner Tony Lloyd hosted a meeting at Bury Town Hall to discuss the impact of the cuts.

During the event, Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy said that, over the last four years, the force’s total number of officers had dropped from 8,200 to 6,700.

The policing budget is likely to be slashed by another £41 million over the next 12 months, meaning that by 2018, officer numbers in the region are expected to have fallen to less than 6,000.

Mr Fahy said: “Having neighbourhood police on the ground to build relationships and gather intelligence is vital.

“But neighbourhood policing will not work unless we can bring in officers to deal with crimes like murders and firearms offences.”

Mr Fahy used the example of the rise in anti-Semitic crimes in Prestwich as one area where the benefit of police building relationships in the community had paid off when combating the crime.

He said that to make the most of resources in the future, there needs to be more integrated working between different public services, such as social workers and health workers, and the police.

Mr Fahy said around 8,000 troubled families caught on a “conveyor belt of crime” cause a lot of the criminal activity which impacts on Greater Manchester’s 2.7 million residents.

Also speaking yesterday was Mike Owen, executive director of resources and regulation at Bury Council, who said the authority’s own budgetary constraints were impacting on fighting crime.

Mr Owen said that cuts to the environmental health and community safety teams, and a £400,000 reduction in funding for the Community Safety Partnership, had made it harder for the council to lead campaigns to tackle crime, or respond to anti-social behaviour such as flytipping and noise.

He said in Bury the adult re-offending rate is now slightly higher than the national average and a rise in recorded domestic abuse crimes such as violence, burglaries and robberies has been reported.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Lloyd said: “The reality is we are running out of money to be able to provide a police service that the people of Greater Manchester deserve.

“More than £1.4bn has been axed from public services across Greater Manchester, including statutory and voluntary organisations. We are now at the point where the safety of communities is being put at risk.”