Police numbers in North Yorkshire will continue to grow for at least the next two years, a Government minister has said.

While extra officers were announced for North Yorkshire police last year, it is the first time the Government has said the number of officers will grow in real terms, taking account of officers retiring.

And Lord Bassam, the Home Office minister in the House of Lords, praised the county's force for its success in fighting crime and said he expected crime levels in the county to continue to fall.

"We expect the number of officers to go on increasing over the next few years, and by 2003 North Yorkshire police will have a significantly larger number of officers at their disposal," Lord Bassam said.

The minister was in North Yorkshire yesterday on a fact-finding mission on rural law and order issues at the invitation of Scarborough and Whitby MP Lawrie Quinn.

He met with police and probation officers and people working with drug users in Whitby.

Lord Bassam said he was "extremely impressed" with the work of local police officers struggling against over-stretched resources and with a huge area to cover.

"North Yorkshire police are to be praised for being a very effective force," he said.

"Crime figures are coming down and they are well on top of burglary and car crime."

But officers in Whitby told Lord Bassam of their difficulties in having to drive vast distances to deal with just one incident.

Bob Humpleby, chairman of the North Yorkshire branch of the Police Federation, gave a cautious welcome to Lord Bassam's announcement on police numbers.

He said: "I hope he is right, but we haven't seen any figures yet."

Mr Humpleby added that any new officers would still leave the force below the 1991 total.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire police said the force was glad of the recognition from the minister.

"North Yorkshire does an extremely good job with a high rate of efficiency despite having one of the lowest rates of funding in the country.

"And if we do a good job now, we can do an even better one with more officers and more resources and we look forward to them coming into place."

Updated: 08:37 Wednesday, January 10, 2001