by Katie Lamborn

Kent Police has revealed it faces a whopping £20 million worth of cuts - £10 million more than first thought.

The force said the savings will have to be made over three years and include an extra £2.7million of cuts this year.

A recruitment freeze will be imposed but top brass insist front-line services will not be affected.

Speaking at yesterday's Kent Police Authority meeting, Temporary Chief Constable Adrian Leppard said: "It sounds a lot of money but its only 1 per cent of budget.

"We will be taking half a million from the money we use to maintain our estate, some from the money we use to build new buildings and we are going to look at reducing some police officer numbers."

"It's in the context of the fact that we've increased police officer numbers by 500 in the last 10 years."

"It's not something we want to do but by redrawing on our recruitment plan we can reduce numbers but be reassured the public will not notice the difference on the ground."

Mr Leppard, who is standing in after retirement of former Chief Constable Michael Fuller, added: "We don't want to knee-jerk into something where we force people to be made redundant.

"If we think ahead and understand what our police headcount needs to be then I'm hoping through natural wastage and natural turnover we can manage this intelligently."

"Our new Chief Constable Ian Learmonth is very experienced in making savings," said Chair of Kent Police Authority Ann Barnes.

"He comes from the Norfolk force who've done a complete restructuring of how they do business - taking positions out of the back office and putting them back on to front line policing."

"I make a complete and utter commitment that day to day policing services won't be affected in Kent and Medway."

Chairman of the Kent Police Authority, Ann Barnes, said the savings won't be made at the expense of reduced policing or officers being cut from the frontline.

She added: "None of us are looking forward to making cuts and savings.

"I personally want to make a commitment to the public that frontline services will not be impacted.

"The day-to-day quality of policing will stay the same. This is not a new programme of work or a knee jerk reaction.

"However, due to the number of savings and efficiencies that must be made, the authority, who hold the purse strings, has obviously got to do more to ensure the force can work with what funding we have."