WILTSHIRE police officers would strongly support changes within the police service, it was found at a meeting of the Wiltshire Police Federation on Tuesday night.

The Government's contentious Police Reform Bill was one of the topics discussed at the meeting of 160 police officers, held at the Corn Exchange in Devizes.

The bill plans to modernise the police force, with controversial aspects involving changes to pay and conditions for officers that would see overtime rates cut and the introduction of community support officers.

In a ballot held earlier by the Police Federation, 87 per cent of Wiltshire's police officers voted against the proposals to change pay and conditions.

Phil Davenport, the chairman of Wiltshire Police Federation, said at the meeting: "Not only do we want change, we demand change."

He said the federation wanted to see better radios, more officers on the beat and less bureaucracy and he challenged Wiltshire's Chief Constable, Elizabeth Neville, to examine why officers were on sick leave due to stress.

Fred Broughton, the national chairman of the Police Federation, said while his members supported proposed neighbourhood wardens they opposed community support officers.

He said: "The plan is to put community support officers on the streets with the power to use force and the power of detention.

"The public want protection not people pretending to be the police."

Miss Neville said the force was putting policies in place to tackle bureaucracy. These included computerised form filling.

She said stress-related illness was more prevalent in today's society and was not confined to just the police force. She added that Wiltshire police had a low level of sickness.