WILTSHIRE Police have admitted that the chemical attacks in the Salisbury area have had a knock-on affect on community policing in the rest of the county.

This week police and crime commissioner Angus Macpherson said the operational cost of the incidents in Salisbury and Amesbury, which have left one person dead and three others still struggling to recover from Novichok poisoning, will reach more than £10 million.

He is confident that all costs will be met by the Government but agreed the force’s non frontline work has been affected by the original attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia and then the poisoning of Dawn Sturgess and Charlie Rowley

He said: “Wiltshire Police had to request mutual aid support from police forces across the country in order to meet the extraordinary demand placed on the force after two major incidents were declared in the space of four months.

“This has helped the force to minimise impact on community policing at a time when they were responding to a global incident.

“Even with this additional support, during the second incident Wiltshire Police had to cancel officer rest days and put annual leave requests on hold to meet an extraordinary level of demand which saw private security brought in to guard cordons.” It is projected that more than £7 million pounds of the total bill will cover the cost of the extra police officers who came from 40 other forces, with more than £1.3 million being spent on overtime for Wiltshire Police officers and staff.

It also covers a number of police vehicles which had to be destroyed as a precaution in case of contamination, at an estimated cost of £347,000.

Mr Macpherson said: “For our force to find itself at the centre of two major incidents in such a short space of time is somewhat unimaginable and we have endured significant costs because of the scale of the investigation.”

“I am grateful that the Government has already pledged £4.1million pounds towards the costs incurred by Wiltshire Police during the investigation into the attack on Yulia and Sergei Skripal.

“I fully expect all costs associated with these unparalleled incidents to be met by the government.”

Chief Constable Kier Pritchard said frontline policing duties have remained unaffected in Wiltshire.