CLEVEDON and Nailsea have begun sharing a police sergeant following cuts in funding to the Avon and Somerset police force.

Sergeant Jon Simons has been splitting his time between the two towns after previously having sole responsibility for the staff and geographical patch covered by Nailsea Police Station.

Previously, Clevedon and the surrounding villages were governed by Sgt Debbie Budd, who joined the Clevedon team in January 2010 but has since taken on a different role in the force.

The move comes following a review carried out by the senior leadership team of the North Somerset policing district into the supervising ranks across the district. This was carried out prior to the Central Government Spending Review, which saw major Government funding cuts announced for the whole country and will see Avon and Somerset Constabulary need to save �15million over the next year.

A police spokesman said: “The senior leadership team of the North Somerset policing district undertook to review the supervising ranks across the district to ensure we had the right amount of supervisory capacity across our respective policing sectors.

“The decision was taken to reduce the number of sergeants from three to two when Debbie Budd took up a new role within the force.

“Essentially, the Portishead and Pill area still has Sgt Jim Robinson and Sgt Simons will be responsible for the Nailsea and Clevedon area.

“Sgt Simons will be spending his time split between the two towns, and will be responsible for the beat managers, PCSOs and local policing issues.”

The number of response officers, neighbourhood policing officers and PCSOs in both towns has not been affected by the change, which means Sgt Simons has responsibility for a much higher number of staff as well as a much larger geographical patch.

As well as Clevedon, the town’s police station and staff cover surrounding villages including Kenn, Kingston Seymour, Cleeve, Claverham, Yatton, Congresbury, Wrington and Redhill.

Nailsea Police Station also covers villages including Backwell, Wraxall, Flax Bourton, Failand and Barrow Gurney.