POLICE officers are to be asked to donate more money from their salaries in an attempt to safeguard two centres for ill or injured personnel.

The Police Treatment Centres, one of which is based in Harrogate, rely heavily on donations from serving officers, but the charity fears job losses could lead to its income dropping.

It said it would ask officers if they could give more money from this summer. Michael Baxter, chief executive of the centres, said: “A 20 per cent reduction in Government funding for the police will mean fewer officers and fewer donations for us.

“We’ve never been a fundraising organisation, but we’re going to have to be. We’ve already decided to ask officers to give slightly more a week if they can.”

The Harrogate centre and its sister facility in Perthshire, Scotland, treated almost 4,000 retired and serving officers in 2009/10 and cost £4 million a year to run. Most officers donate £1.21 a week from their pay to the charity’s work.