THE police public enquiry office in Okehampton will close tomorrow (Friday), leaving members of the public having to travel to Exeter to visit such an office.

Devon and Cornwall Police is making changes to its public enquiry offices as part of a force-wide review into public contact.

The changes are expected to save the force around £760,000 per annum. The overall number of full-time equivalent public enquiry officer posts will be reduced from 61 to 34 as part of the plan.

No police stations will close as a result of this review and will remain operational police bases.

Acting Inspector Mark Sloman said: 'In the current financial climate the force needs to make challenging decisions around how we best use our resources to benefit our communities. We are required to make difficult decisions in order to maintain visibility and maintain front line policing whenever possible.

'The force has carried out a review of how the public contact police in Devon and Cornwall and it has shown that the amount of people physically calling at a police station continues to diminish.

'In even our busiest stations this can be as low as five to six people an hour at peak times and for quieter stations can be no personal callers at all for periods of time.'

Acting Inspector Sloman said the force currently received around one million contacts a year from the public via 999, 101 and contact with the force enquiry centre and force website. This number far outweighed the amount of people actually attending a police station.

He said: 'With the development of online communication and further investment in technology, it is only likely to reduce further. While we may be reducing the amount of public enquiry offices immediately accessible to the public, the number of operational police stations is not changing and police officers and staff will still work from those stations affected by the public enquiry office review.

'Maintaining a visible presence in our communities remains a critical factor and we will do everything possible to target resources and achieve this.

'It is hoped this review will further allow us to increase visibility away from traditional police sites.

'Innovation is key and having a more mobile police presence means a better, more efficient and visible police service.'

Acting Inspector Sloman said the police were committed to maintaining community based services and working with partner agencies to do this in the most efficient way possible.