Petition to avert police force cuts is delivered to minister

11:34am Thursday 25th October 2007

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HOME Secretary Jacqui Smith has been handed The Press' Fund Our Force dossier - and left in no doubt that cuts in funding for North Yorkshire Police would be "completely unacceptable."

York MP Hugh Bayley presented the minister with the newspaper's petition against a proposed reduction in the Government's grant to the force, signed by more than 1,350 readers.

The dossier also included a series of articles which spelled out the strength of feeling in York and North Yorkshire against possible cuts of up to £10 million.

The reduction could be made because of a proposed new national funding formula for police forces, over which the Government has been out to consultation.

The articles reported how The Press' petition had been backed by all members of City of York Council, how Chief Constable Grahame Maxwell had warned that a £10 million cut would have "devastating" consequences for frontline policing and how the Police Federation had claimed the impact of the cut would be potentially catastrophic.

Speaking after a 45-minute meeting with the Home Secretary, Mr Bayley said he was "absolutely certain" that the Government grant would not be cut by as much as £10 million. He was also hopeful there would be no cuts at all, although the minister had not been able to give him any guarantees at this stage.

He said he had spoken to the minister of the improvements in staffing that the force had enjoyed since Labour came to power in 1997, with more than 300 extra officers now in post. This contrasted with the force getting no extra officers during the years of Conservative government, he said.

"I told the Home Secretary that it would be completely unacceptable for the grant to North Yorkshire Police to be cut," he said.

He said he had been reassured by the minister's comments, which included an insistence that the Government did not intend to reduce resources to rural forces or low-crime areas, as had been claimed.

He said she had agreed to respond formally, and in writing, to his arguments at a later date, while the specific grants to forces across the country, including North Yorkshire, would be announced in December.