HARD pressed police chiefs were today given a boost with news they will be get an extra £7 million to spend next year.

Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw announced the annual spending settlement for forces across the country in Parliament.

And Lancashire's share will go up by four per cent in the Year 2000.

Last year the county was was disappointed by a settlement of less than two per cent.

This time the force can spend £185.3 million even though it had budgeted for £182 million. Lancashire has done better than most forces with the average national increase standing at three per cent. Jack Straw announced an extra £7.4 billion for police forces across the country in his speech to the House of Commons.

He said: "The settlement takes account of our commitment to improve police efficiency. By achieving their efficiency targets in the Year 2000 police can re-invest the savings to help meet front-line policing priorities.

"Grant allocation in 2001 will depend on police authorities meeting efficiency targets they have been set.

Chief Constable Pauline Clare said: "An increase of four per cent is more than we expected and should be sufficient to match anticipated increases in pay and inflation.

"It should also help us to maintain police officer numbers.

"However, we will still be pushing for improvements in efficiency in order to finance a number of major new investments we need to make."

Lancashire's police authority chairman Dr Ruth Henig said: "Any decrease in settlement would have threatened our ability to maintain front line police officer numbers."

A new policing fund has also been set up to put more bobbies on the beat. An extra £5 million has been made available and the plan is to take on 5,000 more officers over the next three years.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.