THE funding of Dorset Police was thrown into the spotlight this morning as MP Richard Drax called for a special case review.

The South Dorset MP told ministers that Dorset is now the lowest centrally funded police force in the country and a flaw in the funding formula has seen the county lose out on an additional £16million.

He said this equates to nearly 850 more police officers on the beat.

Nationally police forces receive around 70 per cent of their funding from central government but Dorset only receives 54 per cent.

Funding cuts have resulted in a loss of 340 officers since 2007 – 23 per cent of total officer strength. Further cuts could see this rise to 468 by 2018.

Mr Drax said Dorset welcomes 14 million visitors a year but the funding formula doesn’t take this into account.

He raised concerns that the report on a review of the formula taking place in September may not back until after the 2015 general election.

Bournemouth East MP Tobias Ellwood asked for tourism to be considered as part of the review.

Mr Drax’s move is supported by Clive Chamberlain, chairman of Dorset Police Federation.

He said: “Putting Dorset police officer losses into perspective, 468 is the equivalent of losing every officer in Weymouth, Portland, Dorchester, Bridport, Lyme Regis, Sherborne, Blandford, Shaftesbury, Gillingham, Sturminster Newton, and Beaminster, or, to losing every police officer in Bournemouth, Christchurch and some of Poole.

“We are expected to do more with less but the unfair funding situation severely challenges resilience and capability. By 2018 we will barely have one thousand officers to police a diverse busy and burgeoning county, with its fourteen million a year visitors, a thriving night-time economy in the urban towns, an international airport, seaports and half of the population dispersed across large rural areas.

“This also means that council tax payers in Dorset are shouldering a disproportionately high financial burden to pay for their policing services at the same time that those services are diminishing.

“I strongly support Richard Drax’s continued efforts to highlight these issues and secure fair funding for Dorset Police – we are not asking for “new money” but a fair share of what is already being paid to police forces across England and Wales”

Dorset’s police and crime commissioner Martyn Underhill said: “I fully support the MP’s efforts to call for fairer funding for the Force.  Dorset Police is the lowest funded police force in the country in terms of Government formula grant per person.

“What this means is that already hard pressed council tax payers here in Dorset are shouldering a disproportionately high financial burden to pay for their policing services.  A fairer share of central funding is also needed to reflect the policing needs caused by the very large number of visitors to the county during the summer months.”