North Wales Police chief constable Carl Foulkes has welcomed plans to recruit more than 60 new officers.

The Home Office has confirmed the officer recruitment targets for police forces for the first year of the unprecedented drive to increase their ranks by 20,000 over the next three years.

Police forces in Wales will be able to recruit a total of 302 new officers thanks to the additional funding announced by the Chancellor in the Spending Review – with 62 new officers being recruited across the region of North Wales.

Chief Constable Foulkes said in a tweet: “A positive day for north Wales and north Wales police in relation to the announcement we are to get an additional 62 officers on top of the extra officers agreed through the PCC precept over the next 18 months. We will focus on making North Wales the safest place in the UK.”

In the last nine years police forces have lost around 20,000 officers due to cutbacks, but the Government is now aiming to replace those over the next three years.

Strengthening police numbers is a priority for the UK Government, which is investing £750 million to support forces to recruit up to 6,000 additional officers onto UK streets by the end of 2020-21.

The Home Secretary, Priti Patel, set out her vision for policing when she chaired the second meeting of the National Policing Board, involving representatives of frontline officers and police leaders.

She said: “The public are clear they want to see more police officers on their streets, whether they live in the city or the countryside.

“This is the people’s priority and it is exactly what the UK Government is delivering. It means more than 300 extra officers right across Wales, helping to cut crime and keep communities safe.”

Kevin Foster, the UK Government Minister in Wales, said: “All four of our police forces in Wales will benefit from the additional resources announced today, enabling them to tackle crime more effectively and help keep people and communities safe.

“The UK Government has been clear that putting more police officers on our streets as part of our biggest recruitment drive in decades is our priority.”

All officers recruited as part of the 20,000 uplift will be additional to those hired to fill existing vacancies.

They are also on top of the extra officers already being recruited because of the £1 billion increase in police funding for 2019-20, which includes money from council tax and for serious violence.