A GOVERNMENT minister has agreed to meet a top level police authority delegation to discuss funding issues, including the cost of special investigations.

The meeting comes after Cleveland police authority chairman, Coun Ken Walker, and the vice-chairman, Coun Russell Hart, wrote to Home Office Minister, Mr Charles Clarke, stressing the need for Cleveland to be recognised as a metropolitan force and asking for discussions over the possibility of government help with the £2.6m costs of Operation Lancet, the probe into Det Sup Ray Mallon and seven of his colleagues.

Chief Constable Barry Shaw will also attend the meeting.

Responding to the letter, Mr Clarke said that in exceptional circumstances, the Home Secretary was prepared to look at requests for additional financial help.

His comment was welcomed by Coun Walker who said, "It is good news that the minister has agreed to meet us to discuss our concerns over both the general funding situation and the specific issue of the costs of investigations such as Lancet.

"We were among 12 forces not to receive extra funding from the recent £15m package announced by the government to support policing in rural areas. At the same time neither did we benefit from the £20m allocation to help tackle robbery, which went to five metropolitan areas."

He said they would be stressing to Mr Clarke that they wanted to establish once and for all that Cleveland should be seen and judged as a metropolitan force. They would be pressing for that to be recognised by speeding up the pace of recruiting extra officers.

In his letter, the minister stressed that they had tough criteria for considering requests for additional help but he also recognised that a major investigation such as Lancet could place a significant burden on the budget of a small force like Cleveland.

The meeting comes in the wake of criticism from MP, Dr Ashok Kumar, who expressed concern that the cost of Operation Lancet was spiralling out of control while council tax payers of Teesside were being caned for it