Police cuts: How resources in Cumbria are being stretched to breaking point

Cumbria's proposed 15.8% funding cut would be the biggest percentage decrease of any force in the country

(KRoock74/Creative Commons)

With its beautiful mountain ranges and stunning coastline, Cumbria is one of the few places in England where it really is possible to find yourself in the middle of nowhere. For the Cumbrian constabulary, that remoteness makes it very difficult to police.

While Cumbria has the second smallest population of any force outside the City of London, it is spread over the fourth largest policing area in the country.

Now the future viability of policing in Cumbria will be called into question if its £9.4m proposed reduction in central government funding goes ahead, its police and crime commissioner has warned.

The proposed 15.8 per cent cut in allocated funding would be the biggest percentage decrease of any force in the country. It comes on top of anticipated further reductions in the Comprehensive Spending Review that could see the force facing a further £26m in cuts in the next four years.

The constabulary’s officers have to travel 6 million miles a year while policing an area of more than 2,600 square miles, including England’s highest mountain ranges and 150 miles of coastline.

Police and Crime Commissioner Richard Rhodes fears the Home Office’s methodology fails to recognise that the force faces a huge additional cost for policing such a large rural landscape. Mr Rhodes told The Independent: “Policing large rural areas is so much more expensive than policing urban areas.”

Mr Rhodes’ response to the Home Office’s consultation on funding allocations highlights other concerns shared by fellow police and crime commissioners who have signed the letter threatening legal action.

He has warned that figures used by the Home Office to measure “bar density” – the number of bars per hectare – wrongly penalise rural areas.

Mr Rhodes says the Home Office figures also fail to take account of tourism, which increases the population by 32,970 people a day and increases crime by 13 per cent during the peak season.