LOSING hundreds of frontline staff will have a “huge impact” on Hampshire policing, admitted one of the force's top officers.

Assistant Chief Constable David Pryde told residents at a meeting in Alresford that the loss of more than 500 frontline officers will result in the force not being “as slick” as it used to be.

But Police and Crime Commissioner Simon Hayes insisted that the numbers being axed could have more than doubled if millions of pounds had not been saved by closing down stations and selling off unwanted or underused buildings owned by the force.

As previously reported, 535 officers will be axed from Hampshire Constabulary over the next two years as it faces a £25m budget cut.

Up until now the force had sacrificed backroom staff and real estate to protect frontline policing, but with millions still to be saved, residents at the Neighbourhood Watch meeting for Winchester and East Hampshire were told that they had run out of alternatives.

Before the meeting, Assistant Chief Constable Pryde told the Daily Echo: “We've got nowhere else to go.

“It's not going to implode - we're trying to do things differently. The status quo will not remain, it can't.

“It's not going to be as slick as it was. It's impossible with that cutting money.”

The meeting heard that the ranks and locations of where the job losses will be made have yet to be finalised.

But Mr Hayes added that he hoped most of the job losses would come by not replacing staff as they leave - as around 130 people retire or relocate every year.

He also told the Echo that around 600 more jobs could have been lost across the county by 2016 if the force had not saved £5m in the restructure of the estate.

The meeting came less than two weeks after police said that the planned sell-off of Winchester's North Walls station, one of many similar sales across the country, would not affect staff numbers in the city.

The city's Chief Inspector, Darius Hemmatpour, said that 20 detectives and investigative staff will leave Winchester for Basingstoke and will then hear about the future of their jobs.

He added that 14 response and neighbourhood police officers will be lost in the city.

Police will try to soften the blow by centralising services and working more closely with volunteers and other emergency services, the meeting heard.