A WAR of words has broken out between leading political figures in York over a threat to cut cash to a community crime-fighting partnership.

City of York Council is reviewing its annual £190,000 grant to the Safer York Partnership (SYP) in an effort to ease pressures on its purse.

But York MP Hugh Bayley has warned it would be "a serious mistake" to strip York's most successful multi-agency crime-busting partnership of its core funding.

The partnership brings together the council, police and other agencies to fight crime and anti-social behaviour and has seen crime fall by 70 per cent in some areas.

Mr Bayley has written to the council's chief executive, David Atkinson, saying: "More support is needed, not less, to combat crime and antisocial behaviour."

As well as the council funding, the Safer York Partnership annually receives £25,000 from North Yorkshire Police as well as use of the force's buildings and other facilities.

Mr Bayley said it was wrong of the council to suggest it could not afford to support the partnership when it spent "much more than this on non-essential growth items in its budget over the last year".

He said: "The Safer York Partnership has helped to cut crime in some of the worst affected neighbourhoods in York. It would be unsafe and totally unacceptable to close them down or cut their funding."

Council leader Steve Galloway said the authority was reviewing its spending because of Government-imposed increased expenditure, which meant the council had to pay, for example, nearly £1.2 million on waste management alone.

But he said the council had invested "heavily" in the partnership, along with other crime-cutting measures, such as appointing an alley-gating officer and providing local police community support officers with hand-held cameras to gather evidence.

"There is no lack of commitment on behalf of York Council to make York a safer city and we will continue to invest in making the city safer. But if Hugh Bayley wants to do anything other than jeer from the sidelines he should make sure the Labour Government gives York a fair grant deal then we wouldn't even have to discuss cuts."

Updated: 11:01 Monday, November 29, 2004