CUMBRIA Police has been rated as ‘good’ by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabularies (HMIC), having achieved the required savings and performing well in the first three years of its spending review.

The county’s Police and Crime Commissioner, Richard Rhodes, said: “I welcome the HMIC assessment that Cumbria Constabulary is making ‘good’ progress in achieving its savings targets at the same time planning for the future.

“These are challenging financial times and there are still significant savings to be made in the future.”

Home Office figures show there has been a 21 per cent reduction in police staff across the force from September 2010 to September 2013.

There are now 94 fewer police officers, 25 fewer special constables, with a drop in 20 community support officers.

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However, South Lakes MP Tim Farron has labelled these figures as ‘worrying’.

“Residents want to see police officers on their streets and these figures show that that isn’t happening,” he said.

“I am aware that bobbies on the beat is only one way to tackle crime, but I believe it’s the principal way to reassure the public.

“I hope we can arrest the decline and do more to support community policing in Cumbria.”

Lancashire Constabulary was given an overall ‘outstanding’ score in the report released on Tuesday while North Yorkshire was labelled ‘good’.