HAMPSHIRE Police Authority (HPA) has warned it is being forced to take tough measures as a growing cash crisis forces finance chiefs to find £16m savings. Adrian Collett, chairman of the authority's finance committee, warned this week that services were at risk, and he had not ruled out the possibility of job losses as he struggled to stretch the police budget. He told The Herald: "The reality is that the mountain is so big it is unlikely we are going to be able to get away without significant cuts in services." Mr Collett said he could not yet be specific about which areas were likely to be hit, but the cost- cutting exercise was likely to be felt in all areas of Hampshire. "We are now looking at the nitty gritty and going through every aspect of the police budget. Whatever resources there are, the chief constable has a responsibility to make sure they are distributed fairly, but it does not mean that everywhere will get the same. Extra resources will be given to the areas of greatest need. "If there is a higher crime level in one area, extra resources will continue to go there, but making sure that places like East Hampshire do have sufficient police to do the job is part of the equation." Mr Collett stressed: "The one thing we are trying to avoid is a reduction in front-line policing." He said he had never known the finances to be so tight in his years on the finance committee. Following the announcement of the government's provisional police settlement next year, Mr Collett said that just keeping policing at its current level, the force would have to spend £286m. Hampshire looked set to receive almost £279m next year from the government and council tax. And he said that extra responsibilities being demanded by the government could cost another £9m. He said the police authority looked likely to seek the five per cent maximum government allowed increase in its share of the council tax. But funding wasn't keeping up with the demands being made on the police, such as resources for terrorism prevention, its standards department, training and equipping police community safety officers, and keeping pace with IT. "We recognise that people have been hit by council tax, but many tell us that the police is the one service they do not want to see cut and they are prepared to spend more money in this area." The police authority has also hit out at the government following the announcement that its share of the grant for neighbourhood policing has been cut by £2.7m next year. This means that Hampshire will now be recruiting 206 fewer police community support officers than planned. The government had promised £9.2m to Hampshire in 2007/08 for the recruitment of 539 police community support officers over the next 15 months, but when the provisional grant settlement for 2007/08 was announced last week, it revealed that this specific grant had been reduced by £2.7m. Instead, Hampshire is to get a one-off grant of £535,000 to be used for neighbourhood policing. Mike Attenborough-Cox, chairman of the HPA, said: "Neighbourhood policing is a top priority for us. We know it is what the residents of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight want and expect. "While it may be perceived as a good thing that the government is providing us with a grant to be used how we see fit, it is shocking to learn of the reduction in settlement. "This is a major U-turn by the government, given the commitment made earlier in the year. The support officers we already have deployed across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight have proved successful, and it is extremely disappointing to learn that communities are not going to benefit in the way we had anticipated. "Initial indications show that the total grant Hampshire is likely to lose over the next two years is £5.8m. We are currently working on how we can best use the number of support officers we have, but it is inevitable that this will mean spreading numbers thinner. It will be difficult to achieve the level of neighbourhood policing the government demands with 206 fewer officers. "But this does not alter our resolve to deliver the best police service possible within the resources available." The government had set a target nationally for the recruitment of 24,000 support officers. This has now been reduced to 16,000 across England and Wales with a loss of grant across all police forces of £60m.