Dorset Police could take longer to respond and could lose their own helicopter and marine unit as the force deals with massive budget cuts.

That’s the warning from the Police Federation after the county’s chief constable revealed more about the plans to deal with the cuts.

Despite already finding administrative savings – including 104 voluntary redundancies among staff – the force is looking at significant cuts which could include: l reviewing the future of the force helicopter; l reviewing the future of the marine section, even though the county is gearing up to host the 2012 Olympic sailing; l reducing the operating hours of the Poole custody centre; l selling two police stations, whose locations have not been revealed, and replacing them with local bases for the force’s safer neighbourhood teams.

The police are facing budget cuts of 20 per cent by 2014.

Clive Chamberlain, chairman of Dorset Police Federation, said: “There are all these people who read the Daily Mail and think the cuts are a wonderful idea. When it starts affecting the quality of service they receive, or the time it takes for people to get somewhere or a helicopter being somewhere else in the country and taking longer to get here, that’s going to impact on the quality of what we deliver.

“This isn’t anything I didn’t expect and it’s a sad reflection of a government that’s quite happy to give billions of pounds in foreign aid rather than concentrating on its primary purpose, which should be the safety and welfare of its citizens.”

Dorset Police could axe its helicopter and instead sign up to a national police air service under the cuts.

But Mr Chamberlain said the existing helicopter saved many hours in officers’ time on the ground. “It saves lives and it catches villains. It’s a very valued part of what we do,” he said.

He said of the marine unit: “We are a seafaring nation with millions of pounds tied up in very expensive boats, a lot of which are moored around Poole and the rest of Dorset.

“Not having a local team that’s going to be in the area I believe would impact on the public confidence among that community.”

Chief constable Martin Baker and Dorset Police Authority chairman Michael Taylor wrote to “stakeholders” ahead of an authority meeting yesterday.

They said the force’s One Team efficiency programme aimed to improve value for money, with extra officers added to the front line.

The offer of voluntary redundancy had been taken up by 104 non-officer staff, making a saving of 83 full time posts.

The letter said certain parts of the force’s work would remain a high priority because of the risks involved or legal obligations. These included the management of sex offenders, the response to domestic abuse or rape, armed responses and the ability to deal with major crime, serious organised crime and terrorism.

Other savings had been found by delivering backroom functions such as finance and human resources centrally rather than at a local level.

The letter said of the marine service: “Clearly, the 2012 Olympic sailing event requires a policing capability on the water and this will be taken into consideration as part of the review.”