TOWN chiefs have ringfenced £33,000 to fund a PCSO – but only if they are guaranteed to stay in Middlewich.

The sum has been set aside in the proposed Middlewich Town Council budget for 2018-19.

It will be used to pay for an additional PCSO for three years, on top of the one which Cheshire Police is committed to funding for the town.

But town councillors are seeking reassurance that any PCSO they do fund will spend most of their time in Middlewich – otherwise the money will be spent on alternative means of security, such as CCTV.

Speaking at a Middlewich Town Council meeting on Monday, Cllr Samantha Moss, town mayor, said: "We've got some very stringent questions to ask the police on what exactly we will get for our money.

"Our hope is that we will [fund the PCSO] and that will be fine, however if we don't get the agreements that there are a certain times they have got to be here.

"At the moment the PCSOs can be taken off to any other parts of Cheshire to service another town that might need them, but we want agreements that if we are paying for a PCSO, how long we are having them in our town.

"Otherwise we could use those funds for CCTV or other community safety projects."

Cllr Jean Eaton added that the council needs to be certain it should spend the money on a PCSO as it is a commitment for three years.

"We need to see them in the town like we used to – they walked about, came in here, talked to the children, went to schools," she said.

"But the last lot we have had, we are lucky if we see them, and we don't want that to happen again."

Cheshire Police announced its decision to ask parish and town councils to pay £33,000 to fund an additional PCSO last year.

The force is committed to providing provide one PCSO for each electoral ward, but councils will have to pay the full price for any additional PCSOs.

Winsford Town Council, which currently pays £11,000 to fund a PCSO, has opted against paying the £33,000 to fund an additional PCSO from 2018-19.

Cllr Mike Kennedy, mayor of Winsford, told the Guardian last October that to pay £33,000 on one PCSO 'seems to be extortionate'.