Thames Valley Police is bucking the national trend by recruiting extra officers on the beat.

More than half the police forces across England and Wales have frozen recruitment or are cutting the number of officers this year because of Government funding cuts.

But Thames Valley Police, which includes Oxfordshire, says it has enough money in its 2010-11 budget to take on 27 more officers. The force’s share of the council tax bill is going up by two per cent next month.

A police spokesman said it was not yet confirmed how many new recruits would be deployed to the streets of Oxfordshire, as opposed to Berkshire or Buckinghamshire.

John Grant, chairman of Thames Valley Police Federation, said: “Many forces in the country are cutting their numbers and I’m absolutely delighted the police authority and Chief Constable have decided to increase the establishment by 27.”

A study by Police Review magazine earlier this year showed 24 of the 43 forces surveyed had frozen recruitment. Other forces planned future staff cuts or would not comment.

Greater Manchester Police is set to cull up to 300 posts, the Metropolitan Police face the loss of 450 jobs and a further 73 police officers will go at Sussex Police, the Police Review revealed.

More than 1,400 had applied when the force ran a recruitment drive last April.

He said some of the applications were still being processed, but the force would open recruiting again “when necessary to ensure the extra 27 officers are recruited by March 2011.”

In December, Chief Constable Sara Thornton pledged to maintain officer numbers in the face of any financial problems or Government cuts.

The force warned up to 166 civilian posts could be cut to cope with a worst case scenario £40m blackhole in funding over the next three years.

But Ms Thornton said the cutbacks would lead to only 50 redundancies with the rest of the positions lost through wastage or redeployment.

The drain of officers to the Metropolitan Police has also fallen. Only two from Oxfordshire moved to London between April and December last year compared to 47 officers – including 12 from Oxfordshire – in 2008-09.