NORTH Yorkshire's newly-appointed chief constable today vowed to "make a difference" when she takes up her post in October.

Della Cannings, who was revealed as the successor to chief constable David Kenworthy on Monday, told a press conference at County Hall, Northallerton today that she wanted to continue the work of Mr Kenworthy and his team.

She said: "I'm so proud, I just don't know how to express it to everybody - how proud I am to come and serve in North Yorkshire and, of course, the city of York."

She said her priority would be to get to know the officers and support staff of the force and to learn about the county and its various issues.

She said she was going to focus on performance, an area she saw as "absolutely critical" to the force in attracting funding and providing a quality service to the public.

She said she would be heavily involved in the creation of next year's policing plan, a blueprint for tackling the county's crime and disorder issues.

Ms Cannings is currently Acting Deputy Chief Constable of Cleveland Police. She is the first woman to be appointed to the top post in North Yorkshire, and will become the country's fifth woman chief constable.

When asked if she thought this would make a difference to women staff in North Yorkshire police she said it was a question of whether gender mattered.

She said: "I've always recognised since becoming a police sergeant in 1979 that I'm a role model to others.

"As chief constable I can't help but be a role model to females in the service.

"That's been important in my time with Cleveland police to show women they can climb the greasy pole and get to the top.

"What I'm keen about is to make sure there's good management for all of our staff and for their individual needs."

When asked about how she viewed the force's image following the criticism it faced in the mid 1990s over allegations of sexism, she said it was a question of how much the criticism had been created by the media and how much had really come from the citizens of the area.

She said: "I think the force has got a very good image and that's backed by the fact that 15 people wanted to come here and be chief constable."

She said that Mr Kenworthy and his team had done much to take the force forward and that was something she was also keen to do.

Ms Cannings and current Chief Constable, David Kenworthy, were this afternoon attending a conference aimed at cutting the number of motorcycle deaths on North Yorkshire roads.

Before the conference at Northallerton's Civic Centre, she said that all types of road casualties were a major cost to the community, not just in terms of the deaths themselves but in terms of the great many services that are involved in any incident. She said a joint approach between police, government officers and transport and safety officers was needed to tackle the problem.

She said: "I want to continue the good work in making sure we can make our roads safer and reduce those sorts of injuries or fatalities."

Updated: 15:04 Wednesday, August 21, 2002