CLAIMS that cuts to police budgets have not affected the service have come too soon, the North Yorkshire Police Federation has claimed.

Home Secretary Theresa May this week said that despite cutting police budgets by £1.2 billion in four years, crime has fallen by more than a fifth, with reductions in violent incidents, domestic burglaries and criminal damage since 2010.

However, Mike Stubbs, Chairman of North Yorkshire Police Federation, said there was more to policing than crime statistics, which Mrs May had failed to address.

He said: "In North Yorkshire, sadly, we are seeing an increase in the numbers killed and seriously injured on our roads. Selby custody suite has just been closed and Skipton will follow, and it is impossible to say yet what impact that will have on policing in those districts.

"What we are seeing is North Yorkshire officers being repeatedly deployed away from the communities they should be serving because neighbouring forces no longer have the capacity to deal with events such as EDL marches and football matches without our assistance."

Sgt Stubbs also said police morale had "taken a battering", and changes to pay and conditions meant officers "lose out financially if they are injured on duty and unable to work".