LIBERAL-DEMOCRAT president Simon Hughes has waded into the growing row over frontline police manpower in part of the North-East.

The Bermondsey MP was in Durham, one of the main targets for the LibDems in the forthcoming General Election, to join candidate Carol Woods in releasing the results of a constituency-wide survey on crime.

During his visit, he raised the issue of the Home Office's funding formula, which Durham's Chief Constable Paul Garvin criticised last month for leaving the force "short-changed".

Mr Garvin had said the formula penalised well-run rural forces such as Durham and diverted resources to high-crime urban areas.

The result was a programme to free frontline officers by recruiting civilian workers for routine tasks such as answering the phones.

Speaking during Friday's visit, Mr Hughes said: "Durham Police is being penalised for being a good and effective police force, and that is clearly not a fair system.

"We need to keep battling for more funds for frontline resources for good-performing police authorities like Durham. We now have record police numbers, we accept that. However, the public are still arguing strongly they need more police.

"We say that if you are spending Home Office money, then more police is a bigger priority than identity cards. If we spent the £5bn earmarked for identity cards on more officers, then Durham could have an extra 100 cops."

Over the past few months, the LibDems have asked voters across the constituency for their opinions on crime and have received more than 1,500 responses.

The survey said that less than half of those who had been victims of crime had reported it to police and of those, 40 per cent had not done so because they felt the police would not act.

Most of those who had reported crime were unsatisfied with the outcome, and almost two-thirds felt there were too few police in the city.

Mr Hughes accepted that those who felt unhappy with their experience of crime were most likely to respond to such a survey, but said the results were still valid. He said: "More people feel more at risk, and that is worrying."

* www.thisisthenortheast. co.uk/election