HUNDREDS of posts – including frontline police officers – will be lost at Hertfordshire Constabulary over the next four years, as the force looks to plug a funding gap of �36m.

Plans to cut 550 positions, split equally between officers and staff posts, were discussed at a Hertfordshire Police Authority meeting on Friday.

Of those, 69 officers are expected to be cut within the next financial year, with a further 93 staff posts also expected to go, following the removal of 51 positions in October.

The cuts are part of the authority’s proposals to meet a medium-term budget gap of almost �11.8m for 2011/12, and an overall deficit of �36m over the next four years, after the Government’s spending cuts announcement last year.

It is hoped that redundancies will be kept to a minimum by not filling positions vacated by staff either leaving or retiring.

Safer neighbourhood teams will also be kept to their current levels – for now – after the authority ring-fenced its funding.

At the meeting, held at County Hall in Hertford, authority chairman Stuart Nagler said: “These are tough choices but we know it’s got to be done.”