NEXT year will be a critical year for North Yorkshire Police, as new cuts and money-saving, according to the crime commissioner.

The latest report from Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan, acknowledged that “money continues to be a challenge”, and “more change is inevitable”.

Mrs Mulligan said: “There are significant improvements to be made around the efficiency of the organisation.

“Next year will consequently prove to be a critical one - greater efficiency, including via collaboration, is the only way to safeguard frontline services such as our highly valued local policing teams.”

The report highlighted a transfer from the force’s General Reserve of just over £1.8million to cover overspending on the budget.

It said the transfer - which equated to about 1.2 per cent of the force’s overall funding - was “due to policing demands this year”, which included large payments for policing the fracking site at Kirby Misperton, and many hundreds of thousands of pounds on temps and hire cars.

The report also showed the PCC had taken part in 44 public engagement meetings across York and North Yorkshire, 16 surgeries for one-to-one meetings with residents, and eight ‘roadshows’ while campaigning over the governance of North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service, while about 4,000 people used her website each month.

The report also highlighted the work done to train officers in mental health care, more work on cross-border crime, working more closely with other agencies to deal with localised problems, finally issuing new technology to allow officers to work in the street and improving the 101 and 999 call handling system following severe problems in the last year.