POLICE stations should be closed and policing radically reformed, the former chief constable of Greater Manchester told a Bolton audience.

Retired chief constable Sir Peter Fahy spoke candidly to students, lecturers and guests as part of the latest 'An Evening With...' series of chats held at the University of Bolton and hosted by former broadcaster Gordon Burns.

Sir Peter said in the face of budgets being slashed and the rising complexity of modern crime-fighting the responsibility and financing of the Crown Prosecution Service and local magistrates' courts need to be devolved to a Greater Manchester mayor in the same way as health and transport spending.

He said: "Whenever chief constables go to the media to complain about the cuts, the Home Office puts out two lines — crime is down and police reform is working.

"Crime is down but the police deal with a lot more than crime, so it's a complete red herring.

"The second thing is that we have actually had very little police reform.

"We have had some reform of police governance — the police authority has been replaced by the Police and Complaints Commissioner — but we have had lots of cuts but very little real reform."

Sir Peter said officers need to be working alongside social workers and other members of the criminal justice system to tackle the root causes of crime rather than simply coping with the effects, such as a cycle of prosecution and punishment dealt with at the magistrates' courts.

He said the police needed to be part of multi-disciplinary teams to solve the problems such as trouble family backgrounds, truancy and illegal money lending that provoke offending.

The retired chief constable said: "Some of the national politicians and national media don't understand the reality on the ground of having to police local behaviour.

"The gap between Bolton and Westminster is getting bigger.

"That's why the devolution agreement is so exciting.

"Let's have the services working together.

"That's the biggest opportunity that the devolution agreement offers us."

He advocates reforming the UK's 43 forces, police's pay and rewards, the rank system and the need for police stations.

The retired chief constable would like to see the definitions of particular crimes reviewed, saying the law was sometimes a "straitjacket", and said it should be a requirement for police officers to have degrees.

He said he was worried the cuts to police budgets will damage neighbourhood policing when it is so valuable in helping identify problematic people before their behaviour spirals into something more serious — especially when it comes to terrorism, child sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Sir Peter said: "You can have armed officers, to reassure the public, and more detectives but community officers have long-term relations with schools and universities - that's under threat.

"You have to have good connections with your local community to know what's going on."

The retired chief constable said: "How do you get it across that there's no point having a police station?

"Having a police officer in a yellow jacket and a big hat walking the beat makes no difference.

"You want him out on the road with a tablet interacting with other agencies.

"You want brave politicians to stand up and say that."