POLICE funding decisions must not ignore the needs of large sparsely populated rural areas, North Yorkshire council leaders have said.

The Government is looking at an overhaul of the way cash is allocated to police forces around the country, but in North Yorkshire civil servants are being urged not to overlook problems faced in the countryside.

Cross border crime, the cost of policing a large geographical area, and the amount of "non crime" problems like road safety and missing vulnerable people all add to police costs in North Yorkshire, and put strain on the force's finances, councillors have warned.

The Government has asked for responses to a consultation on a new police funding formula, and North Yorkshire county councillors are pleading for rural issues not to be forgotten.

In a draft consultation response, to be formalised by the county council's executive next week, council staff say they agree that new funding formulae need to be drawn up that are "more relevant to policing today", but they take issue with some of the new proposals.

Specifically, they say that money should not be allocated to incentivise Government objectives in policing, but instead should let local forces focus on the Police and Crime Plans which have been set for their areas.

They go on to argue that money should not be tied to the density of bars and pubs in an area, which will be much lower in large rural areas than in towns and cities, because this only focuses on "reactive and response" policing rather than preventative work or community safety.

The proposed new formula fails to recognise the higher cost of covering sparsely populated areas, they add, and it ignores the increased demands police in North Yorkshire face when tourists and other visitors flood into the county in the summer each year.

Cross border crime is a major source of concern, as the Government's proposed new formula would use population data to decide how much money each force should get, not taking into account the face that "a significant proportion" of North Yorkshire's crime is committed by people who live elsewhere.