Recruitment drive wont offset years of austerity warns Wiltshire Federation Chair

18 February 2019

BBC Wiltshire (radio) 

Chair of the Wiltshire Police Federation Mark Andrews says this year's planned increase to staffing numbers can't come soon enough but warns it won't offset years of austerity.

The share of the council tax which goes to the force is to rise for households by £24 for the year from April and will allow Wiltshire to recruit 41 more officers. Mr Andrews said: “They have to do additional hours and they are working on occasions a lot of rest days so they are tired of feeling put-upon then we have no choice to ask communities for a little bit extra, but it’s not going to make that much difference at all to police and is not going to bring our levels of officers up to a number which would be sufficient to do you want to do for communities.”

Listen to Mark's comments https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p06zgt7m from 41.50