POLICING cuts have hit Bolton harder than most places in Greater Manchester with the district losing more than 25 per cent of its staff since 2010.

Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has had its budget cut by £215 million since 2010 and a new report into the sustainability of policing has issued damning criticism of the Home Office.

GMP forcewide has had its budget cut by 22 per cent, Stuart Ellison, chief super intendant for Wigan, Bolton and Bury, said: "The chief constable has been making a lot of noise recently about the impact of the cuts on GMP and in Bolton we have lost more than 22 per cent of the budget in the last eight years.

"The staff in Bolton respond to about 75,000 calls for service from the public every year.

"Bolton is one of the busiest policing districts in Greater Manchester and there are additional challenges in terms of diversity, it has a daytime and a nighttime economy and there's a lot of regeneration planned.

"It's over 25 per cent smaller and it's a real challenge for us."

The budget cuts resulted in GMP losing 2,000 officers and the deputy mayor of Greater Manchester Bev Hughes has accused government ministers of holding the region to ransom.

Speaking after the National Audit Office report was released Baroness Hughes said: "Ministers hold the purse strings when it comes to police funding, and they are affectively holding communities to ransom.

“Greater Manchester is one of the hardest hit areas when it comes to Government cuts. GMP’s budget has been axed 22 per cent since 2010, whilst leafy Surrey has only been cut by 11 per cent - that cannot be right.”

Baroness Hughes added: "It beggars belief that ministers still do not understand, or are just plain ignorant of, the demands on policing.

"Focusing on crime statistics as an indicator of police demand is fundamentally flawed as it fails to consider the complexity and the day to day challenges faced by police officers, along with the impact on victims and communities."

The National Audit Office report into police sustainability was published yesterday and reveals Greater Manchester Police had the fourth biggest cut to its government funding of all forces in the UK.

The report concluded the Home Office was out of touch with policing and lacked a long-term plan.

Chf Supt Ellison said the number of calls Bolton police receive has not gone up in about five years but staffing had come down 25 per cent.

The reduction in the force has impacted people's perceptions of policing and Chf Supt Ellison said this can result in officers getting negative feedback.

He said: "We face criticism if a response time isn't what it should be or we have decided a crime can't be investigated but the reality is we are working to find a balance."

The cuts have caused "frustrations" for officers said Chf Supt Ellison and the force is concentrating on evolving how it work.

In Bolton Chf Supt Ellison said there will be four new neighbourhood inspectors in the near future who will work with a team of officers to get more resources out on the streets.