A POLICE and crime commissioner has warned that Brexit could lead to over 100 fewer officers on the streets of north Wales.

Arfon Jones, north Wales police and crime commissioner, has warned that a 10 per cent hike in employer contributions on police pensions could lead to 133 fewer police officers or a massive increase in council tax.

As it stands, retired officers are paid their pensions through the contributions of currently serving officers and employers’ contributions from the force, and then topped up by a grant from the Home Office.

However, the Home Office is proposing to increase the employer contributions by forces – without increasing the funding to match it.

One of the main reasons for the pensions bombshell, said Mr Jones, was the uncertainty caused by Brexit and whether or not a deal could be struck.

The proposed changes are based on the pre-Brexit economic forecasts of the Office of Budget Responsibility and reflect the uncertainty prior to the Brexit vote which continues to blight the forecasts.

Across the UK the police pensions cost is set to increase by £165m in 2019/20, before rising to £417m, which could mean 4,000 fewer officers next year and ultimately 10,000 fewer from 2020/21.

According to Mr Jones, the proposals flew in the face of an official review of police pensions by John Hutton, the chair of the independent Public Service Pensions Commission, which had sought to ensure employer contributions to public sector pensions were affordable.

As a result, the stark choice is to massively increase the police precept by £16.92 or to drastically reduce the number of officers policing north Wales.

The commissioner has now written to all north Wales MPs and AMs to flag up his concerns about the “unaffordable and unnecessary cost pressures for policing in north Wales”.

He has invited the elected representatives to a briefing by him and the new chief constable of North Wales Police, Carl Foulkes, in January.