A YORK police chief has apologised for his officers' failure to answer a call for help against vandals who had gone on the rampage - and blamed it on under-funding.

Chief Superintendent John Lacy said the York area of the force was under-funded, and called on residents to tell North Yorkshire Police Authority what they thought of the situation.

He was speaking after the Evening Press reported yesterday that a resident who called the police to stop youths smashing up Heworth Community Centre was told "we have no resources".

Addressing about 50 residents at the Monk Ward Committee meeting - chaired by a police authority member, Coun Nick Blitz - Chief Supt Lacy said: "Yes, we got it wrong, but we are under-funded.

"The biggest crime you can commit is not telling us when we're wrong. We have been under-funded in the York area, compared with Harrogate and Scarborough.

"I want to make sure this man (Coun Blitz) goes back with a wealth of opinion about how we are under-funded."

He said Chief Constable David Kenworthy had told them there would be a move to a different formula for funding by 2004, when there would be more money for York, but it would take 18 months to train up new police officers.

"I would love to say we'll get more police officers, fully resourced on the ground, but we aren't going to get that."

Chief Supt Lacy said demand had rocketed for police services since he started in the force in 1968.

Then there were an average of 461 telephone calls to York headquarters in one week - today the average is 25,000 calls.

Nevertheless, he said crime had decreased between 1995 and 2001 for the first time in 150 years because of the use of intelligence - of information from the public which enabled police to target known criminals.

He said: "Don't stop ringing the police. We might not be able to get there, we might not be able to answer the calls, but keep trying, we need your information."

Two of the biggest areas of concern for him, he said, were the introduction of crack cocaine into York, and the resulting burglaries, and the problem of nuisance youths, both of which were priorities for the police.

He said so far this year crime had risen by 15 per cent, but York was still one of the lowest crime areas in the country for a city its size and was one of the best-performing areas for the low level of violent crime.

He appealed to organisations and residents to do their bit, backing York District Hospital and the University of York's decisions to bring in parking charges to improve security, the introduction of neighbourhood wardens by City of York Council, and calls by residents at the meeting for the community to do more.

Groves resident Peter Burbidge said he had stopped two young men who were climbing over a back wall after an elderly neighbour told him she had seen them.

"If we all played a part and challenged people that would be a great help to the police, and that is the type of spirit that has got to come back into the community."

Chief Supt Lacy said: "When I was a cadet, the police force was set up to help people to police themselves. They're not doing that any more."

Updated: 11:17 Thursday, April 25, 2002