BURY police are to lose 19 frontline police officers because bosses say the division is over-staffed.

The shock move to redeploy the 18 constables and one sergeant to Manchester city centre has been condemned by the borough's two MPs, who are angry at the way the decision was made.

Now, Bury North MP David Chaytor and his Bury South counterpart Ivan Lewis are to meet Greater Manchester Police Authority (GMPA) chairman Derek Osbaldestin next Wednesday.

Also unhappy at the transfer is local Police Federation representative PC Andy Wright who said: "The police officers in Bury perform as well if not better than the rest of the force in all areas.

"Our reward for doing that is to lose police. Who suffers? The public who reside and work in our area."

"While everyone would accept that different areas have different policing needs, in my opinion it is not acceptable that every other division of territorial police in Greater Manchester has in excess of 100 constables and 14 sergeants above that of Bury, a fact that cannot be ignored."

But divisional commander, Chief Superintendent Garry Shewan, has defended the decision by disclosing that Bury has had 59 extra officers since 2000 and during the past 12 months numbers have been above the allocated level - understood to be 313 officers.

However, MPs Chaytor and Lewis say they are "extremely unhappy" at the way Greater Manchester Police (GMP) Chief Constable Michael Todd has chosen to manage the situation.

In a joint statement, they added: "We are also very concerned about his failure to consult relevant partners.

"We are proud that, under this Government, Bury has benefited from a year-on-year increase in the number of police officers. We want assurances that these gains will be maintained and built up in the future through a funding system which is fair and open."

Councillor Sam Cohen, Bury's representative on the GMPA, said: "This is being done to bring the Bury force back to the strength at which it should be. We are never happy if Bury loses police officers and we'll be looking to see if this move has any adverse effect on crime and detection levels."

Ch Supt Shewan said: "While some divisions across the force area have not had their full number of officers for some time, Bury has had additional officers. GMP has, therefore, agreed that all divisions will return their officer numbers to the agreed level from the beginning of the new financial year on April 1."

Disclosing that Bury's crime has fallen 12.6 per cent this year, the divisional commander added: "We are committed to continuing to build on existing improvements. The significant reduction in levels of crime and offending in Bury over the past two years have been a result of new methods of working and a commitment to serving the public of Bury by police officers and their partners.

"This commitment will continue despite the loss of these officers and I hope that Bury will continue to see improvements in our fight against crime and disorder during 2005-006."