THE cutting back of the Essex police force has been a grim process, and it is about to get a whole lot grimmer. Since 2012, programmes have been axed, and personnel shed on an almost industrial scale.

Yet the process still has much further to go.

Essex’s Chief Constable Stephen Kavanagh has now released details of a programme to implement a staggering £63million worth of economies. Until now, frontline policing has been protected from the axe, but even the frontline is no longer immune.

Across the county, police stations will be closed. PCSOs, who have to a large extent replaced beat bobbies as the police presence on the streets, will lose three-quarters of their complement. The inescapable result will be that the police virtually disappear as a regular, familiar presence.

Essex police and public are caught in a deplorable situation, not of anyone’s choosing. Yet anyone who challenges the cuts has to offer an alternative way forward. All proposals add up to one thing, local tax rises.

The reality is that such a move, even to boost the police service, is unacceptable.

The decline in resources has not been matched by a corresponding fall in demands on officers’ services. Stretched to a thread, the thin blue line continues to perform superbly.

In the midst of the cuts, we should never forget just how much we owe to the police.