Extra 'panda' car drivers are to be trained to meet a police force's expected need for more front-line officers.

Police chiefs in Durham plan to invest in a training programme to produce 120 qualified drivers a year, 40 more than are now taking to the road.

Despite having a record total of bobbies on the beat, the force aims to increase the number of new recruits authorised to drive police vehicles. While recorded crime has fallen in recent years, including a five per cent drop in the year to the end of March, the number of calls to the police reporting incidents rose to 197,816, 7,000 more than the previous year.

Senior officers have forecast the upward trend in calls will continue, due to public expectation and improved access to the service.

Chief Superintendent Trevor Watson, head of force personnel and development department, said: "Many incidents require an immediate mobile response and we just don't have enough drivers who are qualified to get behind the wheel of an emergency vehicle.

"The shortfall could be aggravated by the predicted increase in calls."

Uniformed officers must undergo a training course and pass a standard police driving test before they can respond to emergency calls in marked police vehicles fitted with blue lights and two-tone horns.

Existing training arrangements see around 80 officers per years successfully completing the standard course.

Chief Supt Watson said: "Research has shown that in some stations only half the officers on duty are standard driver trained.

"This increases demand on a limited number of officers, and action is needed now.

"Durham has long been a community-based force, but we need both flexibility and mobility to meet the varied demands placed upon us by the communities we serve.

"The number of 'priority' calls we get, together with a projected increase in those retiring will create a situation over the next few years where the number of trained drivers at the 'front end' of policing will effectively reduce."

Chief Supt Watson said a comprehensive in-house review considered varying options, including a more basic assessment of driver skills to undertake 'non-response'-type driving.