STAFFORDSHIRE and Cheshire Police are each being ordered to slash a further £1.7 million from their budgets this year.

Both authorities were already struggling to make large savings before this latest cut.

Staffordshire has been trying to make £4.3 million in savings this year after receiving a 2.7 per cent funding increase for 2010/11.

And Cheshire wants to claw back £5 million from its £177.5 million budget, despite increasing its council tax precept by 2.72 per cent.

More jobs could now be under threat in both forces following the Government's announcement earlier this week that it needs to meet £6.2 billion in cuts.

But Staffordshire Police's Chief Constable Mike Cunningham, pictured, is reassuring residents that frontline services will not be affected.

He said: "This is a proposal which has got to be ratified. The police force is not immune to the Government's announcement earlier this week.

"We were expecting it. It has not come as a surprise. The plans we have got in place will cater for the further cuts we have got to make.

"Principally, we will be looking at things that support the operation side of things. I am hoping the cuts will not have any effect on frontline services this year."

The police authority's budget for the current financial year is £190 million, 80 per cent of which will be spent on staff.

Mr Cunningham said the force will assess if they can work more efficiently and cut costs in areas including human resources, finance, and administration.

He also said the force would be looking at improving the way it works with other forces to "spread the burden of costs".

In relation to job losses, Mr Cunningham added: "We have a reorganisation programme and in terms of how we are hoping to manage reduced numbers of people in the force will be down to the natural ebb and flow of people.

"When people leave the force, whether it be a new job or retirement, we will assess whether replacements are necessary."

Mark Judson, chairman of Staffordshire Police Federation, said: "There has already been much work in progress regarding the reorganisation of the force with the Community First project, which is looking at areas of the force where costs can be reduced.

"It would appear that there had been plans for further pain and although the extra cuts are not welcome, it should not cause too much of a problem."

Michael Shepherd, branch secretary of Staffordshire Police's Unison branch, which represents civilian staff, added: "We are well aware of the financial constraints. A number of systems are in place to lessen the impact on members of staff, but even with these savings we can't afford to be paying a lot of money in redundancies.

"Our main concern is maintaining frontline services."

Margaret Ollerenshaw, chairman of Cheshire Police Authority declined to comment.