AS the Home Office announced a £9-million cut to police funding for Devon and Cornwall, the mayor of Okehampton criticised the Government for continually slashing policing budgets.

The Home Office recently announced that police forces in England and Wales will have their funding from central government cut by almost 5% in the next financial year.

This is on top of existing efforts by the force to save £51-million over the last four years.

The police and crime commissioner for Devon and Cornwall Tony Hogg has said that the cuts will undoubtedly have an effect on services and that options including reducing officer numbers and closing police stations would have to be explored.

Even before that was announced, Cllr Paul Vachon had written an open letter to Devon and Cornwall's police and crime commissioner Tony Hogg to share his concerns over how budgetary cuts are affecting policing in rural areas.

His letter comes following a spate of vandalism in the town centre involving takeaway restaurants and other outlets. The latest attack is thought to have cost tens of thousands of pounds of damage to a historic store frontage.

Cllr Vachon said that he felt the police force in Okehampton did the best they could but that the reductions in funding were starting to have a visible, detrimental effect on rural communities.

He also said he expected other people in Okehampton to lobby the commissioner following the latest act of vandalism and also that he was aware of concerns among residents that such incidents would escalate.

In his letter, Cllr Vachon said: 'I strongly believe that the imposed reduction of budget for Devon and Cornwall Police has resulted in a drastic reduction of police officers, especially so in Okehampton.

'This has made rural towns and communities more vulnerable to criminal activities and due to distances and hours worked, sharing facilities with other towns is just not working.

'The absence of PCs and PCSOs patrolling our streets on a regular basis is has become very apparent within the town over the last year.

'This is not acceptable. An underfunded and undermanned police service is of poor service to the community.'