CHESHIRE Constabulary has been rated 'good' for keeping people safe and reducing crime, according to a police watchdog.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) looked at whether Cheshire Police understands demand, how it uses its resources and how well it plans for the future.

In its latest efficiency report released on Thursday, the force was highly praised for innovation in predicting likely future demand, sound budgeting and its excellent collaboration with other police forces and Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.

Chief Constable Janette McCormick said: “Collaboration has played a part in our effort to tackle demand and financial challenges with projects currently ongoing with other forces and of course our merge with Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service.

“This clearly shows we are doing everything possible to make us fit-for-purpose as we continue to face incredibly challenging budget cuts.

“As well as analysing where crime is taking us in the future, how it will affect us and how we manage it, we also showed we have a greater understanding of hidden crime, the crime committed behind closed doors such as modern day slavery.

“We have achieved this through raising awareness and understanding among staff and officers, and by sharing of information with other agencies such as social services and trading standards.”

The report comes after the HMIC rated Cheshire Police’s crime recording processes as ‘inadequate’ in June.

David Keane, Cheshire Police and Crime Commissioner, said: “This is a tremendous achievement when you consider that the Constabulary and its fantastic team of officers and staff have managed to attain largely good or excellent feedback against a back drop of severe budget cuts since 2010, some £57million.

"We have to fight hard to retain this achievement and retain the quality of our frontline services across the county.

"With potential further budget cuts on the horizon, we need to avoid the thin blue line being stretched too far. It will mean the Constabulary faces some difficult decisions around how it will police the county in the coming years and that’s something we’ll be talking a lot more about in the next few weeks before the Government’s policing budget settlement in the coming weeks."