Cheshire’s Police Commissioner said figures quoted by a local MP in the House of Commons referring to him spending an extra £513,000 on his office budget are “months out of date”.
Eddisbury MP Aphra Brandreth raised concerns at Prime Minister’s Questions about policing priorities in Cheshire, amid uncertainty over the future of police community support officers (PCSOs).
The county is set to lose 50 of its 87 PCSOs as part of a cost-cutting measure in a bid to save £13 million over the next four years.
Cheshire Police Commissioner Dan Price has suggested that residents could pay an extra £2.14 a month council tax (band B) to save the PCSOs.
Ms Brandreth said in the Commons that Mr Price “seeks to present himself as campaigning to save police community support officers, while proposing to substantially increase the precept, and all at the same time as planning to increase spending on his office by £513,000 next year”.
“Does the Prime Minister agree that represents a failure of leadership, and that money would be far better spent on increasing the number of PCSOs on our streets?”
The Conservative MP is among many politicians and residents who have been campaigning against Chief Constable Mark Roberts’ plans to axe PCSOs since the announcement was made in November.
The move would see warranted officers redeployed into local policing teams.
Originally 60 PCSOs were to be made redundant, but the commissioner recently announced he has managed to save 10 of those roles.
A public consultation on the police budget, which asked whether residents would be prepared to pay extra to keep all the PCSOs, ended on Friday.
Mr Price said he was arranging to meet with Ms Brandreth “and talk about facts”.
“The figure quoted by Aphra Brandreth in the House of Commons is months out of date. That was purely used in budget planning,” said Mr Price.
He continued: “The Cheshire police budget for 2026/27 is yet to be finalised.
“Any additional funding that the MP alluded to for my forthcoming ‘office budget’ relates to money that is allocated to commissioning.
“Typically, this is for things like crime prevention initiatives, victim support and engaging with residents.
“I’ve spoken with Aphra’s office and said we need a meeting so we can clear this up and talk about facts.”
Something needs to happen to save money, just seen article that CEC want to increase their part of rates by 9.99%, then you have to add on charges for Police, Fire and Rescue and Town/Parish councils.
Something has to give
Bring back Dwyer