AMESBURY councillors have rejected a request to help fund the town's police community support officers.

They were asked to consider the feasibility of such a proposal by Chief Superintendent Jerry Wickham, of Salisbury police.

No indication of costs was provided, but the suggestion was dismissed outright at last week's meeting of the town council.

Deputy mayor John Noeken likened the request to a stealth tax.

He said: "I think, given what has been quite a substantial increase in the police precept, I see this as another stealth tax.

"It's wrong that funding for such officers should be placed on the shoulders of local communities when there is a great struggle for us all to keep precepts as low as possible."

Cllr Allan Peach, who is also chairman of Wiltshire county council, said it was important councillors remember the county council already contributes 49 per cent of police funding.

Hazarding a guess at how much it would cost to fund the town's police community support officers, Cllr Fred Westmoreland thought there would not be much change out of £30,000.

"That's an increase on our precept of more than 30 per cent and I, for one, am not asking the people of Amesbury to do this," he said.

"If he were our own watchman and if he had some real powers I might be interested but I'm not in the business of pepping up the police budget."

Finally, Cllr Larry Evenett reminded councillors of the come-back they might face if they helped fund the officers.

He said: "If we are paying for them we have a corporate responsibility for their actions and I don't think I could even consider supporting that as a concept."

Police community support officers were introduced by Labour in 2002 and funding was made available.

But in recent months, the government has cut this funding and now forces across the country must absorb the costs or risk losing these officers.

Wilton, Tidworth and Salisbury district councils have also been asked to examine the possibility of paying for their own police community support officers. Tidworth councillors have dismissed the idea and Wilton said it was too late, at least for this year, as they had already set their precept.