Labour's Clare Moody has slammed Tory plans to cut the number of Police Community Support Officers (PSCOs) by 80 over the next year, and around 200 police staff in total, despite Conservative Police & Crime Commissioner Mark Shelford hiking up council tax by 4.9% across Avon & Somerset from today, 1 April.

Papers seen at the Avon & Somerset Police & Crime Panel reveal that despite raising the police precept by £13 a year for the average household - more than £8m from hard-pressed taxpayers during a national cost of living crisis - the number of PSCOs will drop by 80, with 86 fewer police staff investigators. There will be a further 36 redundancies elsewhere in the force over the next year.

Clare, who is Labour's candidate for Avon & Somerset Police & Crime Commissioner, said: "This is emblematic of Tory mismanagement of both the country's finances and of our police force.

Sunak and Shelford are letting the people of Avon and Somerset down. It is totally perverse that taxpayers across our area will be forced to pay millions more in the middle of a cost of living crisis for much less policing: fewer community officers and fewer staff supporting frontline police officers. 

"Labour will restore community policing after 14 years of Tory neglect. 

"We will increase the number of neighbourhood police and PSCOs by 13,000 nationally, with guaranteed police patrols in town centres and every community having a named officer they can get in touch with."