Cllr Mark Alcock slams police pay cut "a disgrace"

11.28.00pm GMT Sun 27th Jan 2008

Cllr Mark Alcock has called on the government to keep to it's word and award police officers the pay rise they were promised.

Police officers were due to receive a backdated pay increase to 1 September 2007, but it has now been revealed in a leaked memo that the Home Secretary plans to change this to December - making the rise effectively a real terms pay cut.

Cllr Mark Alcock says: "The government's action is a disgrace. It is an insult to a profession that provides a very valuable and difficult service to the residents of Oldham Borough.

That the move was in a leaked memo is even more appalling. At the Association of Chief Police Officers conference last year, Gordon Brown said 'There is no greater responsibility than that which you as police officers accept, and there is no greater obligation for us in government than to support you in discharging that duty'. This action shows these were hollow words from the Prime Minister."

"It is ironic that in a time when some ministers are being investigated by the police for seemingly illegal financial donations to their own political funds, the government should be undermining our police officers in this way."