Police horses sold for £40,000 as mounted section is axed early

HUMBERSIDE Police's mounted section has been disbanded ten months earlier than planned.

The four horses have been sold for £40,050 to two police forces and a private buyer.

Former Chief Constable Tim Hollis made the decision to scrap the unit before he retired. The move is expected to save £500,000 a year.

Police and crime commissioner Matthew Grove said the unit was disbanded early to save more money, with the force battling to cut £11m from its budget over the next two years.

Mr Grove said: "In the last year, there was only one occasion where the mounted section was a real policing requirement. At other times, we were just using them because we had them as a resource and not because we actually needed horses.

"We need our police officers out on the streets, where they can be preventing crime and protecting the public.

"At a time when policing resources are increasingly valuable, we need to make sure we are getting the most out of every penny the taxpayer provides. If we left the section there for another six months, that's another quarter of a million quid."

The decision to scrap the mounted section was not without controversy, with hundreds of people taking to the streets of Beverley in protest. Mr Hollis had said the unit would be disbanded in March next year, but the horses were sold quickly after being put out to tender in June.

The horses Harvey and Captain were sold to Greater Manchester Police for £8,250 and £12,750 respectively, while George went to South Wales Police for £14,050.

Lord George was unable to continue working as a police horse and was sold to a private buyer for £5,000.

If horses are needed in the future, they will be hired from another police force.

Mr Grove said: "It will come at a cost, but it is not a huge amount and it is nowhere near the £500,000 we spent last year. We are very fortunate that South Yorkshire and West Yorkshire police forces both have mounted sections."

The three PCs and a sergeant who worked in the unit, based in Walkington, will be redeployed to other positions within the force.

Mr Grove said he still intends to set up a volunteer mounted section as soon as possible, for rural patrols and public events. They will not be policing football matches or city centres.

"The horses are something people get a lot of pleasure out of and take a lot of pride in so I am determined that we will still have a mounted presence," said Mr Grove.

"They will not be doing public order work but can still do things like rural patrolling, searching for missing people and for public engagement events.

"We had a stand at Driffield Show and 15 horse riders expressed an interest in joining a volunteer mounted section, which shows there is considerable interest from the equestrian community."