HOME Secretary David Blunkett today promised to reconsider plans for civilian crime fighters in York which he turned down last year.

Speaking after a meeting with City of York Council leader Rod Hills and MP Hugh Bayley, the Government's police chief said he had been impressed by what the city had achieved in tackling crime.

And he promised an application for funding of community patrols, made by the city and turned down last year, would be looked at again.

Mr Blunkett spoke to the city's two political leaders before attending a question and answer session for Labour Party members in St William's College last night.

He was told how partnership work between the council and North Yorkshire Police had resulted in an 18 per cent drop in domestic burglary in the city, a reduction of 13 per cent in vehicle crime and 14 per cent in violent crime.

But a bid for Home Office funding for the new scheme, which would put Community Support Officers on the street to assist police and hand out on-the-spot fines for a range of less serious offences, failed at the first stage.

"I am very keen that places which have put a lot of effort into fighting crime should be successful in their bids," said Mr Blunkett.

"I will go back and have another look at York's bid, and I am sure that, with some minor changes, it could be re-considered."

Mr Bayley said he believed the bid had been unsuccessful because it had proposed that the officers covered the whole city, while Mr Blunkett's intention was for them to cover sections of the community.

"I said if the city was Manchester or Sheffield then it wouldn't make sense for a community patrol to cover the whole area, but York is compact and it makes more sense to cover the whole area rather than very small sections of it," said Mr Bayley.

"Mr Blunkett said he could see some sense in that."

Mr Blunkett also responded to questions about North Yorkshire Police Authority's decision last week to impose an average £26 increase on its precept to council tax payers - much of which will be used to cover pension payments.

In July last year, it was stated that more than 16 per cent of the force's annual budget went on paying pensions, the highest figure in the country

Mr Blunkett said: "I spent some time with North Yorkshire Police Force in November, and I know that some years ago it ran into grave financial difficulties. They are just coming out of that.

"I decided I would help them, and announced a £1 million package for them, in addition to costs relating to the Great Heck accident."The £1 million is intended to cover extra policing at military bases in the county.

"That is above the normal allocation, but we can't bail out the historic problem with pension payments," he said.

"Every other force in the country would ask us to do the same for them."

Updated: 08:32 Friday, February 08, 2002