NORTH Yorkshire's most senior police officer has announced she is to retire.

Chief Constable Della Cannings today announced that she will be leaving the force on May 16.

In a statement, she said: "It has been an honour and privilege to lead North Yorkshire Police since 2002. The achievements of the service over that period have been outstanding and I leave my successor with an organisation fit and ready to take on the many challenges which face the police service.

"I am immensely proud to be able to leave a legacy of a high performing force that has been modernised and equipped to provide a quality service to the people of North Yorkshire and the City of York. I am very grateful to the people of this area who not only financially supported my vision of creating a leading police service during my term of office, but have constantly and consistently supported the staff in my organisation in bringing about that transformation of the service."

Jane Kenyon, Chairman of the North Yorkshire Police Authority, said the people of York and North Yorkshire owed Ms Cannings an "enormous debt of gratitude" for her achievements as Chief Constable.

"She has worked tirelessly, and with considerable success, to rebuild the organisation that she leads to the extent that she has achieved her personal vision, four years ago, to make NYP a leading service in the country," she said. "The public can ask no more of any public service leader than to deliver continuous improvement in that service during their tenure - and Della has done just that, and more.

"She will leave an organisation completely transformed from that which she inherited. There are many more police officers and staff on our streets, delivering both substantial reductions in crime and through the neighbourhood policing initiative, a style of policing which better suits the public's wishes."