POLICE are recruiting new police constables for the first time in two years, amid huge funding cuts.

Sussex Police is filling 30 constable vacancies with transferees or people already selected, and plans to recruit 40 new officers in November.

The latter has been enabled by this year's rise in the police levy on local taxpayers, a spokesman said.

It comes as the force is planning to cut 500 police officer roles by 2020 in order to save money due to government budget cuts.

Katy Bourne, the police and crime commissioner, said she had approved a budget that enabled the force to recruit up to 100 new police officers.

She added: "I have always maintained that protecting neighbourhood policing is a top priority because it matters so much to communities across our county."

The force is pressing ahead with plans to redesign chunks of its service to save £50 million by 2020 due to government budget cuts.

From July 2016, neighbourhood police teams will operate with fewer officers and staff and cover 16 larger areas.

The force is planning to cut 137 police community support officers (PCSOs), or 40 per cent.

The number of police officers within neighbourhood policing teams will be reduced by more than two-thirds, from 391 to 132.

In December the chancellor announced a lower than feared cut in the next round of funding.

The force's core grant is dropping this year from £98.4 million to £97.8 million, and its grant from the Department for Communities and Local Government will drop from £54.2 million to £53.9 million.

Matt Webb, chair of the Sussex Police Federation, which represents rank and file officers, said the new recruits were welcome but they needed to be looked at in the context of the overall cuts.

He said: "We are still going to lose 500 police officers by 2020, this is just going to ease the pain in the short to medium term and give us less of a cliff edge.

"I am hoping it will allow us to retain some of the services that we currently provide the people of Sussex, but it needs to be seen in the context that we are still on a route that means in a few years' time we will have 500 fewer officers."