Announcement comes after Metropolitan police say half its 24-hour stations will be closed to public outside of office hours
Greater Manchester police have been accused of ending ?face-to-face access? for the public after the disclosure that many public service counters at police stations across the region face closure.
But the police minister, Nick Herbert, defended the move, saying contact time with the public could actually be increased if the police adopt innovative approaches, such as sharing community centres and shop premises, instead of retaining ?an attachment to old buildings?.
In the case of the Greater Manchester force, the alternative to the 20 public service counters that face closure appears to be a phone mounted on the outside wall of the police station with a direct line to a remote control room.
The Manchester police station closures follow last week?s announcement by the Met that half the 64 ?open all hours? police stations in London are to be closed to the public outside office?hours.
The row over public access came as Greater Manchester police confirmed that 900 officers and civilian staff are to lose their jobs in the second phase of cost-cutting at one of the country?s biggest forces. The force needs to find savings of ?134m over the next four years to meet the 20% cut in Whitehall police funding. It is expected to lose 3,000 of its 12,000 staff by 2015.
The jobs of 616 police staff and 270 officer posts are to include 55 front-desk jobs, crime scene forensic investigators, intelligence, serious crime and call-handling posts.
Peter Fahy, Greater Manchester?s chief constable, said: ?We are faced with a very difficult financial situation. We?ve looked at every single one of these areas to decide can we do it differently, can we centralise certain functions, do we need to be doing it at all? It has created opportunities but it?s been incredibly painful for the members of staff involved.?
A decision by the police authority to forcibly retire 169 police officers during this financial year has been postponed until August.
The Manchester announcement triggered a row at Westminster, where Labour MPs claimed the removal of ?face-to-face access with the public at police stations? was degrading a frontline service to the public. Graham Stringer, the Labour MP for Blackley and Broughton, said: ?If the police hide away behind locked doors, then it?s more difficult for them to know what is going on and to be an effective police force.?
But the police minister denied the charge and insisted the chief constable had made clear that the headquarters staff in Manchester had grown too big and savings could be achieved.
Herbert said: ?There are many innovative ways the police can make contact with their communities which don?t necessarily involve an attachment to old buildings, and actually there are forces which around the country do things like sharing community centres, sharing shop premises and actually increase the contact time they have with the public as a result.
?The number of visits to police stations can actually be very low.?
The first phase of Manchester?s police cuts saw savings of ?30m and the second phase is expected to amount to a further package of ?33m of savings.
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