PAYING more for a Police Community Support Office (PCSO) has proved to be a controversial issue for councillors in Davenham.

The parish council has been asked if it would be willing to pay an extra £800 a year for its PCSO, which works out as a seven per cent rise, from March 2010.

But some councillors believe they do not get what they pay for as it is.

Clr Brian Robinson said: “We have had a more than seven per cent decrease of the service we get at the moment.”

Davenham Parish Council currently shares the £11,000 cost of its PCSO with Moulton Parish Council in a three-year agreement drawn up in 2007.

Cheshire Police, which also part-funds the village PCSO, has asked the councils if they would be willing to contribute £11,800 from 2010 to 2013.

Clr John Curran said: “In the early days when the idea of PCSOs was mooted, local councils’ funding of them was supposed to be a fairly temporary arrangement – it wasn’t supposed to be into the blue yonder.

“That seems to have been quietly dropped, as have the principles of having a PCSO.

“They were supposed to be deployed by and in the community to put a uniformed presence back on the streets and make everyone feel a lot more secure.

“But now they’re used virtually as another policeman and they go where they’re needed most – but that wasn’t how it was supposed to be.”

Clr Arthur Wood said: “The main thing is that we need to get the service we actually pay for.”

At its October meeting, Moulton Parish Council praised the PCSO service it has received since 2007 but could not discuss the increase in funding further as it had not yet received official notification.