Police and Community Support Officers

Dear Editor

Our Police and Community Support Officer’s are at risk, this is a vital rural service and I would be grateful if you could help in ensuring readers are aware of this and provide them with the opportunity of signing their petition via the link below.

https://www.megaphone.org.uk/petitions/keep-cheshire-safe-save-our-pcsos

A Notice of Motion was submitted to this week’s Cheshire East Council meeting as below, although full debate wasn’t allowed, the proposer and seconder were allowed to speak and in view of the concerns raised, it was agreed that the Leader of Council would write to the Chief Constable and Police and Crime Commissioner.

Protecting the Role of Police Community Support Officers across Cheshire and Warrington. Proposed by Councillor Janet Clowes and seconded by Councillor Julie Smith.

This Council notes with significant concern, the proposal, announced on 21st November 2025, by Chief Constable Mark Roberts and later confirmed by the Police and Crime Commissioner Dan Price, to axe OFFICIAL sixty PCSO jobs, reducing the current number from 87 to just 27 PCSOs by Spring 2026. A 30-day internal consultation to consider how 13m savings might be achieved by 2029, was launched on 17th November and is still live, however all PCSOs have already received a notice of redundancy commencing 31st March 2026, (stating that any applications for non-uniform posts must be submitted by 16th December). The Chief Constable has stated that this drastic action is to enable the introduction of a new Neighbourhood Policing Model that will “meet the needs of modern-day policing” and for which “a reduction in the current number of PCSOs is required”. In addition, the Chief Constable has stated that the reduction of PCSO is required”.

In addition, the Chief Constable has stated that the reduction of PCSOs will put more warranted Police Officers in local policing teams, in order to support the Government’s Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee. This statement and action related to Cheshire PCSOs directly contradicts the Labour Government’s own Recommended protocol (13th May 2025), for the implementation of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee Problem Statement which states: “The Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee (NPG) aims to rebuild the link between police forces and the communities they serve through delivering 13k additional neighbourhood officers and PCSOs. This will be set out through activities that will be delivered through 5 pillars of the NPG” “INPUT – £200m commitment for Year 1 (2025/2026) – Delivery of 13,000 additional police officers, PCSOs and special constables into neighbourhood policing roles” In addition, each Police Authority is to be assessed every six months by the Home Office with regard to their progress against delivery of the five pillars that underpin the NPG. In light of the current legislation that demands an increase in the numbers of both warranted police officers AND PCSOs on the streets of our neighbourhoods, the proposed actions of both the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner are counter intuitive.

In light of this significant inconsistency: This Council requires answers to the following concerns and resolves to:

1. Contact the Chief Constable and Police and Crime Commissioner and request the following definitive information:

(i) Please confirm that just £3m has been allocated to the Cheshire Police Force of the £200m funding identified by the Labour Government, for the implementation of the Neighbourhood Policing Guarantee (NPG)?

(ii) How will the loss of the majority of Cheshire’s PCSOs by April 2026 enable the Cheshire Police Force to meet key performance indicators (KPI’s) for PCSOs that the Home Office expects?

(iii) What is the fiscal evidence-base for making 60 of 87 PCSOs redundant?

(iv) Will the proposed new warranted police officers be funded by these redundancies or by the Government’s NPG allocation to the Cheshire Police Force? – In either case, how sustainable are these new appointments?

(v) Will the number of the new warranted police officers to be appointed, be commensurate with the number of PCSOs lost?

(vi) How has the loss of the invaluable local community knowledge (acquired and shared over many years by Cheshire’s PCSOs) been accounted for in implementing the NPG model?

(vii) How will the allocation of warranted officers across communities address the current sparsity of policing human resources across the wider geographies of rural communities as rural crime continues to rise?

2. Considering the NPG and the concerns raised above, this Council requests that the Chief Constable and Police and Crime Commissioner reconsider their decision to reduce their PCSO cohort.

Thank you for your support.
Cllr Rachel Bailey
Audlem Ward