Cash-strapped Strathclyde Police has drawn up plans to lose more than 400 officers by the spring.

Chief Constable Steve House has told his political masters he has to shed the posts as he desperately tries to fill a black hole of more than £100 million in his budget over the next four years.

The officer cuts come on top of the loss of 600 civilian jobs – nearly one- quarter of the total - revealed in the Evening Times last week.

Mr House will put his planned cutbacks to Strathclyde Police Authority, his ruling board, on Thursday.

But he privately briefed senior councillors last week – and the Evening Times has seen some of what one local politician called the “frightening details”.

According to the force, Strathclyde Police will lose a total of 410 officers by the end of March, the end of the financial year.

This will include 210 who will not be replaced because of a recruitment freeze announced earlier this summer.

But Mr House now plans “a further reduction” of 200. This will take the overall “establishment” of police officers in Strathclyde from 8084 today to 7674 in just five months.

Richard Baker, Labour’s spokesman on justice in the Scottish Parliament, yesterday said: “The loss of more than 400 officers in Strathclyde would have a huge impact on public safety.

“This is especially the case if remaining police officers are expected to fulfil some of the duties of the 600 or so civilian staff to go as well.

“These massive cuts seem to be taking place incredibly quickly and I have no idea how these targets will be reached.”

Mr Baker said the news also left the SNP’s pledge to give Scotland 1000 extra officers in tatters.

The government has delivered the officers – but they look likely to disappear again by the time Scotland goes to the polls for the Holyrood elections in May 2011.

Briefings issued by Mr House and his colleagues last week spelled out just how serious the financial situation at Strathclyde is. Chief officers want to get some of the cuts out of the way to avoid unprecedented pain next year.

The force expects its budget to fall by 9% in 2011-12 and by a further 5% each year for the following three years, resulting in a shortfall of nearly £55m next year, rising to almost £130m in 2014-2015, when it is supposed to police the Commonwealth Games.

The force believes it can slash one-fifth from its operational budget, but that accounts for just 12% of overall spending. So cuts, it says, have to come from staffing.

It is impossible to sack police officers – although proposals to make that possible are due to be addressed nationally later this year. However, the force can get rid of its civilian staff.

The Evening Times understands they can expect to see their total numbers fall from 2554 to 1954.

Unison, the union which represents non-uniformed workers, believes the average police officer earns £41,000.

The figure for civilian staff is £28,000, with seven out of 10 workers earning less than £21,000.

Strathclyde Police declined to comment on proposed cutbacks, saying it would be wrong to do so ahead of a meeting of the full authority on Thursday, August 26, at 10.30am in Ayr.

Stephen Curran, the Glasgow Labour councillor who convenes the authority, today said: “Members will consider a range of options in an effort to address the significant deficit in our budget at a meeting this week.”