Sir John Whittingdale met Chief Constable of Essex Police, BJ Harrington, and Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, Roger Hirst, to discuss police funding in Essex.

 The meeting comes after Essex Police announced it would be forced to lay off every one of its police community support officers due a huge funding shortfall.

Sir John said: "Essex Police is at maximum strength with 3,755 officers and offences are down by 10,000 a year.

"However, this year's funding from the Government even after the most recently announced increase, together with an increase in the Council Tax precept, is still not enough to cover the increased costs of the pay award to police officers and the Government's increase in National Insurance contributions.

"This has led the Police Commissioner and Chief Constable to propose cutting the 99 PCSOs in the county who do an important job visiting schools, attending public events and supporting the neighbourhood teams. I hope that this figure can be reduced but cuts will still have to be made.

"I will therefore continue to press the Government to provide the full funding to cover the additional costs and to review the national funding formula so that Essex gets a fair share of the money available."

The Police Fire and Crime Commissioner, Roger Hirst, has warned the cuts could harm the force's ability to fight crime.

 "We have made the point this directly cuts across the government commitment to safer streets, one of their big missions." He said.

"They are talking about wanting to see 13,000 more people in neighbourhood policing, but the funding they are giving us means we will be downsizing neighbourhood policing."