North Yorkshire's Chief Constable hailed a bright new future for policing in the county after the green light was given for nearly £3 million of extra funding.

North Yorkshire Police Authority members voted unanimously to approve the new budget which will pay for 60 extra officers.

The extra cash comprises more than £2 million from The Rural Policing Fund, £801,000 from the Crime Fighting Fund, and a 10p a week rise in the precept for the average York and North Yorkshire council taxpayers.

Chief Constable David Kenworthy said the increased strength will stop the force's "downward spiral" boosting public confidence in the force, raising staff morale, radically improving staff training and ultimately cutting the amount of sick leave.

He said the force was at its lowest level in terms of officer numbers in March 2000 with 1,284 officers.

But he said this would increase to 1,331 by next month with the new target set at 1,420 by March 2002 the highest number in its history.

Mr Kenworthy told authority members: "North Yorkshire is one of the safest places to live in the country. We can now make it even safer.

"I'm pleased to say that with this settlement we can reverse the downward spiral. We can invest this new money into police officers, rather than simply use it to bolster the general budget.

"It has been a long three years but now we are seeing the results of cutting costs and a lot of hard work."

He admitted that staff training had in the past been "absolutely abysmal" because of shortages, but by increasing strength, officers could now be released for more training days.

He said they would also be implementing a new staff shift system in April this year.

Authority member Coun John Duggan said he supported an increase in the council tax precept as long as people got value for money.

Coun Peter Vaughan said: "We want cast-iron guarantees that every conceivable step has been taken to spend this money wisely."

Updated: 08:46 Tuesday, February 06, 2001