POLICE bosses have "significant concerns" about a backlog of cases at crown court.

And plans to increase space at York Crown Court by putting up temporary cabins in the car park overlooked by Clifford's Tower have been vetoed by City of York Council - according to Julia Mulligan, police fire and crime commissioner.

Figures revealed the backlog in crown court cases in England and Wales topped 42,000 in June, which represented a 25 per cent increase over the previous year.

Mrs Mulligan said she was unable to immediately share the extent of the backlog in North Yorkshire, but said she had “significant concerns” over crown courts.

The commissioner told the panel while she was quite confident magistrates’ courts backlogs would mostly be cleared before the end of the year, crown court trials with multiple defendants were an issue as they could not all safely be in the dock.

She paid tribute to the “tremendous” efforts of courts staff to enable trials to go ahead, but added: “York Crown Court is a lovely historic building, but doesn’t lend itself to the new alterations around this.”

Mrs Mulligan said plans to increase the court’s accommodation by introducing cabins in the car park overlooked by the historic Clifford’s Tower had been vetoed by City of York Council.

The authority’s leader, Councillor Keith Aspden, replied: “Planning is always one of those things that excites people in York.”