TWO city councillors have called for a rethink after plans to shut most police station front desks to the public were announced.

Merseyside police and the police authority confirmed on Friday they had approved plans to find savings of £12.5m this year. To do it they will shut 22 general enquiry offices from the new year – leaving just two open to the public in each of the force’s six areas – Liverpool north & south, Knowsley, Wirral, Sefton and St Helens.

Other cuts will be made to the anti-gun and gang Matrix unit, the response teams who are first to calls and incidents, the Major Incident Team, which deals with murders, kidnappings and other high-level crime and the criminal assets/economic crime team who trace the ill-gotten gains made and often hidden by criminals. But the closure of the front desks has caused the biggest uproar.

Cllr Tom Morrison, Liberal Democrat for Church ward, wrote to Cllr Bill Weightman, chair of the police authority, to say: “We live in tough times so I understand you must make savings. But this disregard for the fantastic community in Liverpool 18 is very alarming.

“I hope you reconsider this move with immediate effect and start a full consultation of all those that this decision will impact on.”

Cllr Richard Kemp, Liverpool’s Lib-Dem deputy leader, said: “Merseyside Police have failed to review all the ways in which police front desks could be kept open and the report recommending closure should be withdrawn until they do so.

“In other parts of the country, desks are manned by volunteers and specials. There have been some experiments with shared front desks for certain types of activity such as reporting low-level crimes, anti social behaviour or simply asking how to get somewhere.”

Deputy Chief Constable Bernard Lawson defended the cuts saying: “This is only because of the cuts forced upon us by the Government. We looked at these front offices and some of them are only dealing with one person every hour so the resources can be better used in other areas.”

Ian Leyland, secretary of the Merseyside Police Federation – the union for rank-and-file officers, said the cuts would take the force below 4,000 officers for the first time in his 29 years of service.

He added: “We can assure the public those officers left – we have already lost 356 and are looking at another 254 going – will still work as hard as they can to keep them safe but with 600 fewer colleagues, it is going to be really difficult.”