A WARNING has been given that the police service in North Yorkshire could be crippled by the rising cost of pension payouts.

Police authority members were told on Monday that a present overspend of £2.1m, arising mainly from the impact of pension costs and major incidents, could double by the end of this financial year next March.

By October 31 pensions were overspent by £1.5m and major incidents by £640,800. The projected final overspend is between £3.5m and £4m, but this depends on the level of major incidents for the rest of the financial year and potential additional grants.

The authority, which has only limited balances, was warned that the final overspend would be at the upper end of the scale if there was a long inquiry into the latest major incident, the discovery of a woman's body in a suitcase just outside York.

By the end of the year, according to finance officers, police pensions could account for £3.1m of the final overspend and major incidents between £500,000 and £900,000.

Police areas and departments have been told to ensure that they do not overspend for the rest of this year, and development programmes are being reduced so that they contain only schemes supported by full business cases and realistically able to start in the current year.

Chief constable Mr David Kenworthy also reported at the authority meeting in Catterick Garrison that accountants were being brought in at the start of major incidents to advise on spending.

County Coun Jane Kenyon, authority chairman, said representations about the need for Government help in dealing with pension costs had been made not only to North Yorkshire MPs but to Home Secretary Mr David Blunkett on his recent visit to Bedale.

"The magnitude of the problem over the next few years is such that if it is not handled, it will cripple the service.

"Almost 20pc of our operational budget goes on pensions but by 2008 it will be 30pc if nothing is done.

"This force has been consistently underfunded for years and has one of the lowest spends per head of population. Pensions are a national problem but we have got to grapple with it locally until it is solved nationally."

The authority was told in June that the cost to the force of investigating the Selby rail disaster and its aftermath could top £1m, but the authority is still waiting to learn whether it will be reimbursed by the Home Office through the so-called Bellwin scheme.

County Coun Michael Heseltine said: "We are depending on this money going back into our reserves."

The authority was presented on Monday with a summary of 61 major incidents, including a spate of letter bombs sent to North Yorkshire businesses between April 1 and August 31 this year.

But Coun Kenyon questioned the amount of officer overtime involved and asked how the force defined a major incident.