A COUNCIL will pay out a massive £180,000 per year to fully fund six PCSOs and keep the streets safe.

Frinton and Walton Town Council has been paying half the bill for eight PCSOs, with Essex Police paying the other half.

But the police scrapped match funding as part of a cash-saving scheme and the PCSOs left the area on April 1.

Frinton and Walton Town Council had been paying £130,000 every year and councillors have now agreed to fully fund six in the absence of match funding.

Mayor Iris Johnson said: “This is something we have got to take forward now.

“The PCSOs are an essential part of our community and vital to our residents feeling safe and secure and we need to go for six to keep up the shift cover we have had until now.

“We have already been spending £130,000. If we have to spend another £50,000 on top of that to keep crime down and make our residents feel secure then I think it will be money well spent.”

The decision is subject to councillors seeing and agreeing the contract which would be put in place for the funding by police.