A NEWLY appointed police and crime commissioner has revealed that a third of the £1.2m budget he inherited consisted of elected members’ expenses.

Ron Hogg said he intended to shave £100,000 – or 8.3 per cent – from the budget he took over from the former Durham Police Authority.

Mr Hogg, a former assistant chief constable at Durham Police and deputy chief constable at Cleveland Police, will set out his plans at a meeting on Monday which will also discuss the Durham force’s budget for the forthcoming financial year 2013/14.

He said: “Police authority members' expenses were all legitimately claimed, but now we don’t have the members we don’t have those costs, and we will make substantial savings.

“Going forward I am proposing to reduce my budget by £100,000 in the forthcoming year, about 8.3 per cent.”

Mr Hogg said he had removed two vacant staff posts from the structure he inherited and also intended to undertake a full review of staff accommodation with a view to making similar savings in 2014/15.

Meanwhile, Barry Coppinger, Cleveland’s new Police and Crime Commissioner, has defended the number of staff he inherited from the old police authority.

Mr Coppinger was quizzed on BBC Radio Tees why he still needed seven full-time and two part-time staff.

He said: “I have still got the responsibilities that the police authority had, along with additional responsibilities that came with this post.

“I have taken the staff that were transferred and we are looking at ways that we can make the best use of them.

“I am trying to work within the resources that I have been given, but I can guarantee that I will spending less next year on my office than the former police authority did."