On top of the 20-30%% cuts to police services nationally, along with even worse cuts to related services to other parts of the criminal justice system, cuts to mental health, youth work, and substance misuse have impacted significantly on police demand.  Also, the Hampshire and IOW Police Service is the worst funded in the country due to the government’s operation of the police funding formula.  The Chief Constable puts this additional deficit at £43.6m a year.  The equivalent of 1600 staff.  No wonder she admits that Hampshire now only guarantees a priority response to crimes of high harm and that residents feel that most crimes are not responded to, leading to a significant under reporting of crime from all communities.  Add to that, that existing budgets have no uplift for this year, not even for inflation, then more cuts and/or council tax increases have been necessary to balance the books.  Yes, there are new officers coming but not with all the funds they require and this allocation is based not on need but on the formula that already punishes us locally.