A U-TURN on overtime is set to be made by North Yorkshire’s police chiefs as they continue to battle savage spending cuts.

North Yorkshire Police launched a fresh analysis of the extra hours being worked by its officers and staff earlier this year as it faced up to losing millions of pounds in Government funding.

The force originally drew up a savings scenario based on not making any overtime payments for the rest of the current financial year, but a report which will go before a full meeting of North Yorkshire Police Authority today has now said £850,000 needs to be set aside for additional hours to cope with the region’s policing demands. The report said: “It would be more realistic, given the exigency of operational requirements, to assume overtime will continue at the September level for the remainder of the year”.

The latest rundown on the force’s budget position has also shown that it missed its savings target for the end of September by £846,000 as it looks to cut £6.2 million from its budget by the end of 2010/11.

The report said North Yorkshire Police’s aim had been to achieve £2.9 million of its intended savings for the year by that time, but that it only managed to make £2.061 million.

However, it said “significant work” had been undertaken in November to reduce expenditure for the remainder of the year, and an additional £1.4 million in savings have been identified towards reaching the target.

The force has so far overspent on salary-related employee costs and supplies and services, but saved cash on other employment costs and premises costs.

The Press revealed in June that the force spent £4 million on overtime in 2009/10, compared with £2.5 million in 2008/2009, following a string of major incidents including the disappearance of York chef Claudia Lawrence and murders at Burn and Melsonby.