MEMBERS of a police authority have raised concerns over the purchase of a £1,500 microwave to heat prisoners' food by a force crippled with financial problems.

The appliance, bought by Cleveland Police, which is struggling with a £7.3m budget "black hole", forms part of health and safety improvement work in police stations.

The microwave would be used in the custody area at Middlesbrough police station.

Its purchase is part of a £20m building scheme, expected to start early next year, which involves building five stations and the modernisation of custody suites.

The authority approved £90,000 of work at its meeting on Thursday, including redecoration work and the replacing of ventilation grills and smoke detectors.

This follows the approval of £50,000 of improvements in April.

Guisborough Councillor Bill Clarke and Hartlepool magistrate Keith Fisher questioned why £1,500 was needed to replace a domestic microwave oven with a programmable industrial unit.

But Chief Constable Sean Price said his hands were tied and that the improvements - including an industrial microwave - formed part of Home Office specifications.

Police authority chairman Councillor Ken Walker - who will be replaced in July after he lost the support of Labour group colleagues on Middlesbrough Council and was not put forward as a candidate for the police authority - said he believed it was having to "work in a straightjacket".

He said: "We have every right to say the public purse is being ripped off because of the straightjacket we are in."

The authority approved the expenditure but asked that spending be reviewed to try to make further savings.