A TOWN council welcomed a leading police figure on the day their website appeared to have been hacked.

Bromyard and Winslow Town Council’s main webpage was out of action for most of Monday, displaying a message saying ‘Got hacked by Whoami’.

That evening, West Mercia Police’s Deputy Police and Crime Commissioner Barrie Sheldon attended a town council meeting to face a grilling over the town’s depleted police numbers.

He has since agreed with his boss, Police and Crime Commissioner Bill Longmore, to ask the Chief Constable to review policing in Bromyard.

Town Mayor, Cllr Alan Seldon, had warned that any further cuts “could lead to anarchy”.

In the past four years, Bromyard has seen the number of police constables drop from four to one, while its Police Community Support Officer presence has dropped from three to two.

The situation was not helped last year when the remaining constable, PC John Meek, was temporarily deployed to the county’s Gloucestershire border to enforce the badger cull.

But Mr Sheldon said such a redeployment decision was down to a local commander and not his team.

But Cllr Seldon wasn’t convinced and went on to warn those listening that people may take the law into their own hands – should officer numbers continue to drop.

“It is a huge geographical area here,” he said. “We are getting to the stage where I believe people are taking the law into their own hands. Any further cuts could lead to anarchy.”

Mr Sheldon told the meeting that policing would soon change with officers given smartphones, although the town council raised concerns.

In a statement after the meeting, Mr Sheldon said he had spoken with the PCC, Bill Longmore about the points raised.