RED TAPE has left police chiefs £900,000 out of pocket after the Government failed to pay for the cost of the Selby train disaster inquiry.

Nearly a year after the crash on the East Coast Main Line which killed ten people, North Yorkshire Police chiefs fear that essential services may have to be cut because of Whitehall's failure to foot the bill.

It is thought the cost of policing just one more major incident would have a heavy impact on an already strained budget.

Police believe they are entitled to reclaim the £900,000 cost of the Selby tragedy from the Government's national contingency fund for major emergencies, known as the Bellwin Scheme.

But the Home Office has yet to pay up, prompting fears that money may have to be taken away from other areas in a budget currently hit hard by a pension payments crisis.

And last night it emerged that civil servants still do not know if the force qualifies for a pay-out.

A Government spokeswoman admitted that the settlement was being held up because it was not clear which compensation scheme it came under.

She said Local Government Minister Nick Raynsford would be making an announcement "imminently" on the application.

The Bellwin Scheme is supposed to cover "uninsured losses or acts of God".

But the spokeswoman said North Yorkshire Police's claim over the Selby crash was "not an obvious Bellwin case" and that was the reason for the delay.

The scheme,set up in 1983 by Tory environment minister Lord Bellwin, is mainly used to help councils dealing with storms and flooding.

Even before the latest revelation, North Yorkshire Police Authority was holding a series of public meetings warning people that they would either have to pay more council tax or see the number of officers on the beat reduced.

Authority member and county councillor Carl Les said time was running out for the budget dilemma to be resolved but, faced with the prospect of the Selby money not being in the bank, he feared the consequences.

The authority meets on February 4 and Coun Les said: "If the Bellwin money is not received and in the bank soon, there's going to be a big gap which we will have to plug somehow.

"The difficulty the police authority has is that we can't set a budget which is anticipating that there may be some settlement in the future."

By March 31, there are expected to be 1,420 police officers serving in North Yorkshire - the force's highest ever number.

But earlier this month it was revealed that a soaring pensions bill for retired officers meant that figure may have to be cut.

The financial crisis has been worsened by the body-in-the-suitcase murder inquiry near York, which had links to South Korea and France.

Other North-East police forces have also hit financial problems, with many saying manpower will have to be reduced unless tax-payers are willing to meet shortfalls.