4 September 2012 Last updated at 23:13 ET

Essex Police redundancies cost force £6.7m in two years

Essex Police has spent £6,783,762 making staff redundant during the past two years, it has emerged.

The draft annual accounts show one former police employee left with an exit agreement worth £100,376.

Essex Police said departing employees only received payments they were "contractually and legally entitled to".

Most of the payments were made in 2011-12, with 265 staff and officers sharing a redundancy pot worth £4,961,688.

Analysis

Ben Bland Political reporter, BBC Essex

---

It is often said "you have to spend money to make money". In this case, it is a matter of spending in order to save.

Essex Police is looking at various ways of achieving savings of £42m from its annual budget by 2014.

Measures include the proposed closure of the force's police horse unit, which would save an estimated £600,000 per year.

But the reality is that employee salaries make up the lion's share of police spending, and that is inevitably where the cuts will be felt most sharply.

Essex Police says it hopes that many of the 1100 job cuts will be achieved through retirement and by not replacing staff and officers who leave.

However, these figures show that redundancies are being made and, when they occur, they often come with a sizeable price-tag.

Less money

In the previous year, 54 people left Essex Police, resulting in redundancy payouts totalling £1,822,074.

By 2014, Essex Police plans to have cut 1,100 posts, including up to 400 front-line officers.

The force needs to make savings of £42m from its annual budget, as it will get less money from the government.

Mark Gilmartin, the constabulary's director of support services, said: "Individuals only receive payments that they are contractually and legally entitled to."

"There is no sense in which we have overly generous provisions.

"Typically, staff who have worked in the force at a senior level over a long period of time are entitled to sizeable payments."

As well as the restructuring of the force, the police has reviewed its building assets in a bid to save money.

Police stations at Brightlingsea, Great Yeldham, Hatfield Heath, Mistley, Moulsham Lodge, Rochford, South Benfleet, Stansted Mountfitchet and Walton are to be sold.