HERTFORDSHIRE may not maintain its status as the safest county in the country if a £1.6 million shortfall in police funding is approved, say councillors.

Members of Hertfordshire Police Authority agreed a budget of £98 million despite calculating it needs £99.6 million to maintain services.

The decision has been made to meet Government spending targets and will mean Hertfordshire has one of the lowest budgets of any police force in England and Wales.

But county councillor and Conservative representative on the Hertfordshire Police Authority Robert Ellis said the move would compromise safety in the county.

He said: "We are rightly proud of Hertfordshire's boast of being the safest county in England and Wales but I am not sure we will be able to maintain that boast next year.

"Whatever you try, you cannot take nearly two million pounds out of services like this and not expect it to show somewhere.

"We have less money to do the same amount of, if not more, policing next year."

If the figure is agreed by Hertfordshire County Council on February 20, it will mean a Council Tax bill for policing of £59.55 per year for a band D house - representing a 15p rise per week.

Defending the decision, Mr Bryan Lund, chairman of resources on the police authority, said: "Hertfordshire has one of the best police services in the country and the authority must ensure the budget it sets for next year enables the chief constable and his staff to continue providing a top-quality service.

"Although Hertfordshire has a 4.2 per cent cash increase in funding for 1998-99, it is not enough to cover the expected increases in pay, which are set nationally, and other additional costs, such as the £350,000 needed to cover changes in health and safety at work legislation.

"Bridging the financial gap without reducing front-line policing will require prudent management and a higher local Council Tax than we had hoped."

Councillor Chris White, Liberal Democrat member of the police authority, said: "Real crime fighting involves ensuring there is a properly-funded police service.

"It is now harder to argue that this will be the case in Hertfordshire."

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