LANCASHIRE Police are slashing the number of crimes requiring an immediate response by 35,000 under plans to make £42million cuts.

Chiefs believe they can attend around eight per cent fewer incidents without hitting the detection of crime and overall service for victims.

Instead of an instant response, an appointment will be made for an officer to visit later for crimes such as low-level anti-social behaviour, fraud and suspicious activity.

MPs warned this policy increased the danger of missing a serious crime, and urged police to look elsewhere for savings.

But Chief Constable Steve Finnigan said: “Undoubtedly we are deploying to too many jobs when we don’t need to - and actually very often when the public don’t want us to.

“It is using up a valuable resource.

“But we will keep a close eye on it. People will be pretty quick to tell us if they’re not happy with the service.”

The announcement was made as Mr Finnigan unveiled how he will make the first £38million of cuts over the next four years after the government slashed the police budget.

Original estimates of 1,000 job losses from a total of 6,500 had been revised down to 800 - of which 550 will be officers and 250 police staff.

The force will lose 160 frontline posts.

And so far 433 jobs have already gone through a recruitment freeze, retirements and resignations.

The number of PCSOs will stay at just under 400 for at least the next 12 months.

The £20million neighbourhood budget has been cut by 10 per cent, as has the £60million response budget.

Force chiefs think they deal with 20,000 calls out of an annual 604,000 ‘inappropriately’.

They are creating a two-armed structure involving immediate response for serious incidents and another team to deal with crime such as fraud, suspicious activity and minor anti-social behaviour at the ‘bottom end of the scale’, by making scheduled appointments.

A Telephone Investigation Unit will resolve calls over the phone with no home visit and an Automated Resource Location System will map where officers are.

It means officers will go to 35,000 fewer calls - an 8.2 per cent reduction.

Responding to Government claims that 20 per cent budget cuts wouldn’t mean frontline losses, Mr Finnigan said: “I’m sorry, it can’t be done.”

Mr Finnigan described neighbourhood policing as Lancashire’s ‘jewel in the crown’ and said they would be losing 39 officers out of 752.

Blackburn will actually gain three neighbourhood posts, but Burnley will lose three as resources are balanced across the force.

Mr Finnigan said deeper cuts of 33 per cent to departments such as partnership and community safety - which will largely be civilianised with staff taking on officers’ roles - had reduced the frontline impact.

Hyndburn Labour MP Graham Jones said he was ‘extremely concerned’ at the proposals and blamed government cuts.

He said: “This is only going to worry the public more.”

Jack Straw, Blackburn MP and former Home Secretary said: “It is undoubtably true that a proportion of the 999 calls the police get are not emergencies.

“However, there is always a danger, if the police do not respond, of them missing something really serious.”

Conservative MP for Pendle Andrew Stephenson said the police should be looking elsewhere to make savings.