RETIRING Chief Constable David Kenworthy has announced a massive shot in the arm for York's policing.

The area is to get the lion's share of a £600,000 crime fighting fund to boost recruitment of new officers.

Mr Kenworthy admitted in an exclusive interview with the Evening Press that the Central area, which includes York and Selby, is under-resourced compared with the force's other areas.

Workload figures for the force's three areas had been analysed and they showed that Central "needs a greater share of people," he said.

There would be about £300,000 available to recruit new staff this year, received from a special crimefighting fund set up by the Home Office and another £300,000 next year.

"A huge proportion of this will be going to York," he said.

He stressed that not all the money would necessarily go into putting more bobbies on the beat. It might be decided that some of the money could be more usefully spent on support staff, such as civilian scenes of crimes officers.

There would also be some movement of officers between the force's three areas to prevent York being flooded with raw new recruits, he said. But he was confident the new money "'will start making an impact".

York Chief Superintendent John Lacy, who has long argued that Central is under-resourced compared with East and West areas, said: "I am delighted that the Chief has publicly announced that he accepts Central has been underfunded compared with other areas."

He said he hoped Mr Kenworthy's successor would honour the commitments made by him.

Leading York councillors have welcomed the Chief Constable's comments. Lib Dem leader Steve Galloway said: "It's welcome news - and long overdue."

Labour's Councillor Mick Brighton, a member of North Yorkshire Police Authority, said York's large population and crime problems meant it warranted more resources than, for example, Craven.

"I do hope that the new Chief Constable does make sure that York gets more officers."

Meanwhile, Mr Kenworthy has insisted that the recent rise in crime was merely a "blip", and that the underlying trend was still downwards.

He said a massive police operation to target the 40 most "prolific" criminals in York would begin to take effect. "If we target those 40 criminals in York and lock some of them up, crime will tumble towards the end of the year," he said.

He also fired a warning shot across Home Secretary David Blunkett's bows, describing his attempt to secure greater powers for his office to hire and fire senior police officers as "sinister".

Mr Blunkett, he said, had taken "a lot more powers" under the 2002 Police Reform Act.

"Despite the Home Secretary protesting that he would never abuse those powers, he of course cannot control his successors," he said. "It would be a bad day if I was constantly looking over my shoulder when I was deciding how to act against criminality because I was worried about the adverse effect on my career."

Updated: 10:50 Wednesday, October 02, 2002