POLICE in North Yorkshire will be left at their lowest levels since the force was formed as budget cuts take effect, a Police Federation chief has warned.

North Yorkshire Police is facing up to cuts of £19 million over the next four years.

Mark Botham, chairman of North Yorkshire Police Federation, said with 210 officers set to lose their jobs – largely through retirement – the force faces the prospect of the lowest number of officers per 100,000 of the population since the early 1970s.

He said: “The reality of the ill-planned and drastic cut to the policing budget imposed by this coalition Government is that if the proposed reductions go ahead, the ratio of police officers to residents of North Yorkshire and the city of York will fall from 211 police officers to 100,000 residents in 2007 to only 148 police officers to 100,000 residents in 2013.

“This will be the lowest ratio of police officers to residents since North Yorkshire Police was formed in 1974.”

The warning comes as new research showed the British public said they would be concerned if the police stopped providing the current range of services as a result of the budget cuts.

In a survey, commissioned by the Police Federation of England and Wales, 86 per cent of those questioned said they would be “worried” if the police stopped providing the range of services outlined by interviewers; 44 per cent say they would be “very worried”.

The findings from the survey also show that the public think the police are responsible for a number of services which are not fighting crime. Some 84 per cent said they believed the police were responsible for intervening in domestic rows and disputes; 23 per cent believed the police were responsible for arranging for vulnerable children to be taken in to care; and 39 per cent said the police were responsible for monitoring offenders who had been released from prison.

Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said: “The Home Secretary needs to take heed of the findings.

“If the police service is able to do all that the public expects of it, it will need the shackles of financial restraint urgently removed.

“A cut of 20 per cent over the next four years will inevitably lead to a poorer service, increased crime rates and will seriously jeopardise public safety and the security of the nation.”