AROUND £1.4million was "wasted" by police officers failing to attend training courses in Lancashire last year.

It has been revealed that only 77 per cent of courses paid for Lancashire Constabulary were attended by officers.

However police bosses said unpredictable policing sometimes meant that officers couldn't attend pre-booked training sessions.

The situation was revealed as Lancashire Police Authority announced that around £6million has been made available to help train police officers in the county during the next financial year.

The cash will be spent on a range of courses, from languages such as Chinese, Polish and Gujarati, to forensic science lessons.

County councillor Geoffrey Roper, a member of Lancashire Police Authority with special respons-ibility for information technology, said: "The 77 per cent take up figure is clearly not acceptable.

"We can see that it represents a considerable amount of money.

"Twenty three per cent amounts to around £1.4million so something has to be done about that.

"I think some sanctions need to be put in place.

"I don't see what sanctions are currently in place for people who book courses then don't turn up.

"We need to have sensible means of saying that if you want this provision you can have it, but it's not a freebie, if you don't use it then that way we are going to recover any money that would previously have been lost.

"It has got to be a stick and a carrot. At the moment it looks like the carrots aren't working so we have to use the stick."

Chief Constable Steve Finnigan said a review of the current system was taking place but said the organisation must have some "room to manoeuvre".

Mr Finnigan said: "The 77 per cent take up figure has been helpful to put the microscope on what is a really important issue.

"We are talking about money and we are talking about resources.

"This is not about over provision or providing more training than is required.

"There are operational demands that kick in that causes us not to be able to send people to take up training.

"For some of the courses like first aid for example there is more of a problem with."

Steve Edwards, chairman of Lancashire Police Federation, said: "Our information is that the reason that most courses aren't taken up is because of operational reasons as people are required.

"This boils down to a lack of resources of front line cops so the answer is to put more front line officers out there on the streets then they wouldn't have to miss what are often essential courses."