North Yorkshire's top policeman today warned the county's police force could face a funding shortfall of up to £7m within two years.

Chief constable David Kenworthy pledged to cut out waste, dead wood and bureaucracy from the heart of his force.

He said even that may not be enough to plug the gap between what the county's thin blue line needs in terms of resources, and what it is getting.

But he said he was not prepared to go cap-in-hand to central Government asking for more cash until he was satisfied the force was making the best use of the money it had. At the moment that was not happening.

The chief constable's warning came following weeks of mounting concern that the county's thin blue line is being stretched virtually to breaking point.

It follows the decision of York police chief Supt Jim Kilmartin to retire following a clash with the chief constable over staffing levels, and the revelation that traffic police and special constables in York are to face the chop.

In an outspoken interview, Mr Kenworthy told the Evening Press the force was expecting to be £2.8m short of what it would need this year, £3.9m short next year, and £7m short the year after.

That was at a time when costs were mounting and the force was about to commission an expensive but vitally-needed new radio system, which would cost it £5m over the next three years and £1m a year to run after that.

Like other police forces nationally, the North Yorkshire force was further crippled by the rising cost of its pensions bill, he admitted.

That sucked away about 15 per cent of the force's budget of about £80 million a year.

The chief constable admitted: "We now have more pensioners than we do serving officers."

His prescription includes phasing out a number of senior police posts (saving up to £500,000 a year) slashing bureaucracy in the support services, mainly at force HQ (saving up to £1m) and changing police working practices.

But he admitted there would be no cash for more front-line officers to help meet the force's target of reducing crime by five per cent a year.

He said: "Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to pour more officers into each of my areas. But I won't get them."

Further controversy is likely to brew over the split of police resources between rural and urban areas of the county.

The new Central Area, which consists of York and Selby, has only 11 inspectors - compared to 13 in the Western Area, which includes Harrogate and Ripon, and 15 in the Eastern Area, which includes Ryedale, Scarborough and Whitby.

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