A BASINGSTOKE business owner has hit out at plans to cut the number of police officers patrolling the town centre area from April.

Hampshire Constabulary is set to reduce the police presence in the town centre area as part of ongoing plans to cut costs and commit officers to areas that are most in need.

Currently five PCs and two Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) cover the town centre area and Eastrop as well as one PC and one PCSO, who cover the Grove and Brookvale areas.

However, Hampshire Constabulary is planning to merge the two patches into one town centre patch and reduce the number of personnel to three PCs and three PCSOs from April 1.

However, a neighbourhood proactive team of four PCs will also work across all patches in Basingstoke and will be called to incidents depending on intelligence and neighbourhood priorities.

The plans are part of the comprehensive spending review between 2010 and 2016 with the force having to save £80 million.

But Alan Stone, who owns Squirrels Collectors Centre, in New Street, and is chairman for the Basingstoke Top of The Town Traders Association, has hit out at the plans.

Mr Stone fears that the reduction in police presence could lead to an increase in shoplifting piling more of a burden on to shopkeepers in the Top of The Town area.

He said “I have got a Top of The Town Traders meeting next week and I am going to be asking opinions and surveying people on how bad shoplifting is.

“Most of the shop owners I have spoken to have told me they had problems with shoplifting and they have told me that they take the goods off people and tell them not to come back rather than calling the police.

“I haven’t spoken to anyone in Festival Place but the ones that I have spoken to at the Top of The Town are quite worried.

“We are hoping to persuade the Police and Crime Commissioner that he has the wrong idea and that he needs to have police dealing with shop crime.”

But Chief Inspector Simon Dodds, of Basingstoke police, has defended the changes.

He told The Gazette: “In terms of our commitment, nothing changes. Yes, we have to be smarter in terms of the way we work.

“The idea that we don’t take retail crime seriously is just not true.

“It is still a criminal offence.”