Town councillors have launched a fresh attack on plans to cut the opening hours at Dereham Police Station's public inquiry office.Under a countywide shake-up, the office will no longer be open at weekends from November 2 and the weekday hours will be reduced to 8am-6pm.

Town councillors have launched a fresh attack on plans to cut the opening hours at Dereham Police Station's public inquiry office.

Under a countywide shake-up, the office will no longer be open at weekends from November 2 and the weekday hours will be reduced to 8am-6pm.

The force insists that PCs will still be in the station to deal with people and there is a phone that visitors can use to contact the force HQ at Wymondham.

But Dereham town councillors were critical of the changes.

Robert Hambidge said huge resources were put into policing the Prince of Wales Road area of Norwich while cuts were made in Dereham.

'For the sake of 2-3000 clubbers, we as a Norfolk market town has to suffer because of that. It strikes me that why do we put resources into policing drunks in Norwich and law abiding people in Dereham are asked to have everything cut back.'

Robin Goreham said he was concerned about the impact on staff and the service to the public.

He said if admin staff were removed, regular officers would have to do more paperwork.

Steve May said police station front offices were a 'sanctuary' to people.

PCSO Matt Havers spoke to town councillors and said the station would still be manned 24 hours a day by PCs and PCSOs.

He said police were working on a range of issues in the town including an increase in thefts, anti-social driving in the town centre, anti-social behaviour and vandalism at the Rec.