I'll take the Government to court over West Midlands Police cuts, says PCC David Jamieson

He believes they are being denied an opportunity to make a powerful bid for more money under a fresh funding formula now under consideration because official estimates of its financial impact on the force will not be available until two weeks after consultation ends on September 15.

The Home Office Resources Policy Team explained: "The information requested on July 31 is being considered under the exemption in the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act which relates to the formulation or development of Government policy. This is a qualified exemption and to consider the public interest test fully we need to extend the 20 working day response period. We now aim to let his office have a full response by September 29."

Mr Jamieson retorted: "Normally ahead of any consultation on changes to funding the government would provide examples to show how the amount of money a force will receives changes but has not done that this time.

"So we can respond properly to their consultation and plan our future we wrote to the Policing Minister asking him for the information that we would require to find out our funding levels. He didn't reply.

"Now we discover the Home Office won't respond to our FoI request until two weeks after their consultation has ended. The new funding formula for policing has all the appearances of being worked out on the back of an envelope."

He has warned that West Midlands Police could face budget cuts of up to 55 per cent under the new formula which would be "catastrophic" for the force and is now considering a legal challenge against the government over lack of consultation on the new funding plans.

Mr Jamieson concluded: "This is the most serious situation the force has faced since it was formed. I am not one to say cuts cannot be managed or efficiencies made, but the course that the Government is taking us on is beyond that."

The National Audit Office (NAO) has already warned that the force has been hit harder than others by spending cuts.

It has lost £126 million since 2010 with total spending power cut by 23 per cent in the last five years and bigger cuts are expected in future.

Earlier this week it emerged police officers had to drive to emergencies in cars without sirens because of cuts, resulting in delays attending robberies, burglaries and assaults.

There have been more than 100 reports in the past 12 months of police attending urgent matters without a siren in the West Midlands.

As a result, there is said to be 'huge frustration' among officers, who feel they are 'letting the public' down as they struggle to get to crime scenes within the target of 15 minutes.

The 109 Vauxhall Corsa patrol cars being used have blue lights but no sirens and were originally intended for neighbourhood policing and non-urgent inquiries.

However, West Midlands Police stressed that in the last 12 months they attended 0.0007 per cent of calls graded 'immediate', with siren used for all but 100 of the 131,057 calls at that level.