POLICE in the York area spent £315,000 more than their budget in the last financial year.

A report due to be discussed by North Yorkshire Police Authority shows that the county's central area, which includes York, went over its allocated budget by two per cent.

The report outlines various reasons why this is the case.

One is that the previous underspend in respect of employee costs has now vanished because vacant positions have been filled to the point where officer numbers actually exceed the number of funded posts.

Chief Superintendent Iain Spittal explained that, last year, he over-recruited because he knew that more vacancies would become open this year.

But, by recruiting people earlier, he said he was able to have more officers operational and on the streets, rather than waiting for them to complete their training.

Other cost pressures include hiring helicopters and other vehicles and staff travelling costs. But the cost of hiring vehicles is being addressed by a project to implement a management system in York for 2007/2008.

The helicopter usually used is that owned by West Yorkshire Police and has been used in various searches, including that for 22-year-old Robert Ailwood, who was found dead in the River Foss last October.

But North Yorkshire Police overall is slightly under budget for the last financial year.

The amount of cash allotted for policing was £122.9 million, but a total of £122.6 million was actually spent.

However, the force would have overspent by £2.1 million had it not used money from its own reserves.

This was used for two large operations - Operation Harmony, which was in place to deal with eco-protestors at Drax Power Station, and Operation Hansard, which was a successful preventative operation following intelligence which revealed a group of eco-protestors intended to break into Drax to sabotage equipment in an effort to disrupt electricity generation.

The eastern area of the force, which includes Scarborough, also went over budget by three per cent - or £623,000 - for reasons including pressures on training budgets due to student intakes as well as pressures on overtime.

The western area underspent by one per cent, or £208,000.

In general, money was also saved in the departments of information systems and human resources.