POLICE and Crime Commissioner (PCC) Dan Price has saved 10 PCSOs from redundancy following an announcement that Cheshire Police had entered a consultation to reduce numbers by 60.
After listening to residents’ concerns, he has tasked the Chief Constable to achieve this positive result. The Cheshire public can now do more to help save all 87 PCSOs.
Dan Price has also taken the exceptional step of writing to the Government to request budget flexibility, in a bid to save all the PCSO roles currently under threat.
The annual public consultation on how much residents are willing to pay for policing through their council tax is now live. If people select a monthly increase of just over £2 (for a Band B property) through the ‘Do more’ option, this will aid his lobbying of the Government to allow him to raise the money to save all PCSOs.
This week, Dan Price became the first PCC to speak to people travelling on trains about the policing budget as he launched his annual consultation. He spoke to numerous residents across Cheshire as they travelled to work or on days out to directly get their views on policing.
Hearing from all of Cheshire’s communities is key. An online survey is now live, asking residents to share their views on how much they contribute to the police budget through their local council tax. This is something set each year and is also known as the police precept.
Dan Price said: “Cheshire residents have spoken loud and clear about their thoughts on the proposed reduction in PCSOs. I know how important visible policing is to them. As a result, I have fought to save 10 PCSO roles from becoming redundant.
“I would now like to ask the public to help me do more. I have written to the Government to increase the flexibility I have in setting the budget so that I can save all the PCSOs here in Cheshire.
“If residents agree to pay the cost of a small takeaway coffee more each month through their council tax, they can help me to raise enough money to keep PCSOs.
“Cheshire is the safest county in the north west and Cheshire Police is a high-performing police force. Now is not the time to stand still. Policing is constantly evolving and it’s important we have a police budget that provides the resources to continue to keep our county safe in a changing landscape.
“Any increase in precept is always difficult to ask for but I believe we need leadership on this issue. Policing is a key service and people are always asking me to see more officers on patrol.”
This year, Dan Price is asking residents whether they’d be prepared to: cut back, manage or do more when it comes to policing.
The ‘cut back’ option would see the policing precept frozen at current levels. Although this would allow investment in automation (to enable savings in future years), it would cut prevention programmes, a chance to review victims services, fewer people answering calls and the removal of all PCSOs.
The ‘manage’ option would see residents paying 97p more a month (based on a Band B property), which would not only enable investment in automation, but the ability to redeploy 51 new officers into neighbourhoods and utilise existing drones more to focus on anti-social behaviour and ebikes). It would still result in a reduction of 50 PCSOs.
The ‘do more’ option would see residents paying £2.14 more a month (based on a Band B property), which would not only enable investment in automation and an additional 21 neighbourhood officers, but also the ability to keep all 87 PCSOs; answer calls quicker; provide extra drone capability and additional prevention programmes.
Residents can have their say by completing the survey here https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/2026-27precept/
Despite the government announcement that the role of PCCs is due to be scrapped, business will continue as usual until May 2028. This includes the responsibility of setting the police budget for Cheshire Constabulary.
Government funding will increase; however, inflation, pay and contractual commitments have created a £7.3 million funding gap.
