BUDGET cuts will see the number of PCSOs operating across Barnsley slashed.
The reshuffle will mean locally-based PCSOs will be merged into two centrally-based teams from April.
By April, PCSO numbers across South Yorkshire will be cut by 65 and it is understood around 15 of those will be lost from the Barnsley area.
The cut includes all 22 of the PCSO supervisor jobs also being axed, with police sergeants taking on that responsibility instead.
Those officers are based at major police stations and in Barnsley PCSOs are being reformed into two teams, working a new shift pattern, to help compensate for the loss of numbers, and will work from the Barnsley and Wombwell stations.
