More police officers must be moved to Witham as the force makes a dramatic U-turn in its policing shake up, it has been claimed.
The news comes as councillors discovered the town’s taxpayers have been paying £33,000 per year towards two “additional” PCSOs despite the numbers actually dropping.
Last night Witham Town Council’s Community Committee compared figures which show there were four sergeants, 24 police constables and seven PCSOs policing the town in 2007.
Latest figures show there is now one sergeant, three police constables and five PCSOs as part of the neighbourhood policing team based at Witham.
In March response units were moved to Dunmow and Stanway and investigation teams were based at Braintree and Chelmsford under the policing blueprint.
Essex Police has said the officer numbers are not comparable but unveiled plans to abolish the Braintree based Area Investigation Team (AIT) and revert to a more traditional method of policing.
Ken Davies, chair of the Witham Area Forum and Humber Road Estate Community Initiative, believes more officers should be based in the town as part of the changes.
