MORE than 300 police officers will have left the Staffordshire force in 12 months.

Latest figures presented to Staffordshire Police Authority show 211 bobbies have retired following the introduction of Regulation A19 in November, which demands officers with 30 years' service leave the force.

Meanwhile, 124 further officers and 93 police staff will have gone by April.

Now the police authority must decide whether to freeze its share of council tax and accept a Government grant, or increase its precept by three per cent.

Although both options would result in the same budget for 2012/13, freezing council tax would mean the force has less cash in coming years as increases would be from a lower starting rate, so would be unable to recruit new officers or remove the A19 restriction.

Police officer numbers would, therefore, continue to fall.

In a report on next year's budget, to be considered by the police authority on Wednesday, treasurer Paul Brindley sets out the choice facing members.

If the authority does not increase council tax in 2012/13 and accepts a Government Freeze Grant there will be no impact on this year's £182.7 million budget.

However, because the Government grant is only for one year, from 2013/14 the force would have around £2 million less each year until 2020.

If the authority instead imposes a three per cent increase in its precept, police officer numbers are more likely to be protected in the future.

A three per cent increase in the force's share of council tax would mean a Band A household would pay an extra £3.55 a year, while a Band D household would pay an extra £5.33 for the police's services.

Mr Brindley says in the report: "There has been a freeze on recruitment for two years and Regulation A19 has been implemented, which means that 211 police officers have left the force after completing 30 years of pensionable service.

"If council tax is not increased the resource base will be reduced and it will be almost certainly not be possible to reverse these policies before 2015.

"This will lead to strategic problems in the future; no 'new blood' in the organisation and the loss of more experienced staff who may not want to retire.

"The extra resources provided by an increase in the council tax base would allow the possibility of some recruitment and an end to Regulation A19 from 2013."

Staffordshire Police currently has 2,016 police officers.

Senior officers continue to assure residents that the cut in numbers will not diminish front-line policing.

The report states: "There has been a drive to reduce bureaucracy and back office costs within the force and there will have been an expected reduction of around 217 posts during 2011/12 with no anticipated adverse effect on neighbourhood policing."

But communities are still concerned they could lose neighbourhood officers.

Jim Gibson, chairman of Chell Heath Residents' Association, pictured left, said: "People are really struggling but I think they would accept a rise in council tax if it was guaranteed to pay for police."