THE decision by Gwent Police to shut the front desks of 17 local police stations has been defended recently by Chief Constable Carmel Napier.

The chief constable has written to MPs, AMs and local authority chief executives to clarify her position on the matter.

The force is set to embark on a month long engagement process with the public and political leaders to discuss the plans.

Mrs Napier has revealed that she intends to replace the services lost by creating five 'hub' stations. The chief constable has made it clear that her decision is firm, although she will agree alternative provision proposals with the Gwent Police Authority at a meeting at the end of June.

Mrs Napier said: "It is important that our station enquiry staff, at these 17 locations, are not given false hope by anyone, and that they focus their energy on attempting to secure alternative employment in other roles within Gwent Police or elsewhere."

These recent cuts are just part of a range of schemes the force has developed in order to keep up with the Staying Ahead programme. Staying Ahead was introduced by the police force in 2007 and in October 2010 the programme was extended by a further four years. The police claim that the scheme has so far saved some £18million.

It seems that these latest cuts are not the end of the problem. Mrs Napier has said that in 2007, more decisions will have to be made in order to save an additional £14million.

"Our key mission in Gwent Police is to protect and reassure the public and our current policing priorities are to deliver an excellent service to the public, to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour, to improve efficiency, reduce waste and duplication, and increase productivity and to work with partners to keep people safe," said the chief constable in her recent letters to AMs and MPs.

"Having reviewed the low levels of usage of our 9am to 5pm front office provision I am convinced that we need to move our resourcing strategy from paying people to staff the front desks at these sites that receive low numbers of visits to investing in other access channels for our citizens.

"I must stress, however, that these plans will have no negative impact whatsoever on the number of Police Officers and Community Support Officers operating in these areas.

The cuts have been met by anger from local Labour candidates Liam Stubbs and Peter Farley.

The men, standing for the wards of Wyesham and St. Mary's respectively, have written to the Home Secretary Theresa May; asking her to reverse the cuts that will mean front desks closing in Monmouth and Chepstow.

The candidates have asked Mrs May to "put the needs of the community first" and prevent the closures on the grounds of public safety.