POLICE chiefs are locked in top-level talks to prevent local council taxpayers picking up the multimillion-pound bill for policing Royal Ascot at York.

Officers say the meeting at York Racecourse will be the largest pre-planned event that the force has ever handled.

When Royal Ascot is held at its normal venue in Berkshire, Thames Valley Police provides a team of 250 officers on each of the meeting's five days to control crowds of 50,000 and provide security for the Royal party.

Senior figures have revealed that the cost of policing the event in York is "an issue that needs resolving" before the festival of horse racing and high society descends on Knavesmire next year.

Officials have refused to disclose the total cost of policing Royal Ascot, but large-scale police operations are very costly.

The bill for covering one of the force's biggest major incidents in recent years, the Selby train crash, came to about £1 million.

The Evening Press reported earlier this week that police authority bosses had held a "behind closed doors" meeting to discuss the event.

One of the issues under discussion was the question of who would meet the massive policing costs.

Jane Kenyon, chairwoman of North Yorkshire Police Authority, said today that negotiations with the race organisers were at a "very sensitive" point. Because some of the issues under discussion were commercially sensitive, they were discussed in private.

"Policing for any major event never comes cheaply," she said. "But our aspiration would be no extra costs to the taxpayer."

She added that the meeting would be a highly prestigious event for York and North Yorkshire, with huge economic benefits, and she was confident that the police would rise to the occasion with "Yorkshire aplomb".

Superintendent Martin Deacon, of North Yorkshire Police, said the event would be the largest pre-planned event for which the force had been responsible.

He said detailed information about policing the event was not yet available, but added that he had visited last week's Royal Ascot to look at the way the Thames Valley force dealt with the operation.

"Some of the detail is just not available yet," he said. "We are still negotiating over policing the event. One of the issues we will intend to resolve is cost recovery.

"Ascot is running the event as a company and we haven't reached formal agreement over policing yet. This is a very substantial police operation.

"It will be the largest pre-planned event that North Yorkshire Police has ever done. It's a substantial undertaking, but it's one which will live up to the expectations. We will do a good job."

Nick Smith, communications director at Ascot Racecourse, said: "The arrangement for York will be the same as we have with Thames Valley Police and a commercial arrangement will be in place.

"That is still there to be negotiated. All our costs are kept confidential. We do not break them down."

The cost of policing has been a sensitive issue in North Yorkshire, following last year's 76 per cent increase in the police precept. The precept rose a further 9.94 per cent earlier this year.

Updated: 10:14 Thursday, June 24, 2004