CRIME in York is down and officer numbers are up despite little extra funding this year - according to North Yorkshire's Chief Constable Della Cannings.

The county's top police officer hit back at critics who claim York and Selby are not getting the resources to match the crime they suffer.

Ms Cannings said 97 fewer non-urgent crimes were reported last month, while performance compares favourably with similar areas of other forces.

She added that 26 extra officers had been put on the streets of the county's central area since she joined the force in October 2002, but her request for funds to pay for 48 more officers was refused during this year's budget consultation.

Her comments, at a North Yorkshire Police Authority meeting in York yesterday, follow criticism from MP Hugh Bayley, and former city councillors who claim the area is not getting the policing it needs.

Former police authority member Nick Blitz said York and Selby now suffered almost half of all crime in North Yorkshire, but received onlyone-third of police resources.

Ms Cannings said the force's Western and Eastern Areas already had the "minimum" level of officers and she was not willing to move them. There were 1,520 officers county-wide.

She said she had moved officers from offices, realigned duties and employed civilian staff to tackle paperwork and allow uniformed officers to patrol the streets.

She added: "The case-building teams will release police officers and some of that will come back into Central Area, but I reserve the right to move resources to meet the needs of what is going on.

"This has to be a result of not just crimes and figures, but of the nature of criminality. We also have to look at other parts of the justice system to make sure they are using their facilities appropriately."

Police authority chairman Jane Kenyon said: "We would have liked to give the Chief Constable the resources to do more, but that was unacceptable to our communities."

Central Area has 426 police officers, and the latest figures reveal that 40 in every 1,000 residents were affected by crime in the past year.

Updated: 10:42 Tuesday, March 30, 2004