UNDER fire for over-hyping his boost in the number of Britain's bobbies, Home Secretary Jack Straw truncheons his critics today by announcing an extra £7.4 billion for police forces.

In Lancashire, the new spending settlement brings a real jump in resources, just when the county force was facing £5 million-worth of cuts. In fact, the deal gives Lancashire Constabulary £7 million more than it received last year, much more than it expected and more in percentage terms than most other forces.

But if all of this is as welcome as it is necessary, perhaps the most gratifying aspect of the departure is that it signals Mr Straw's and the government's recognition that being tough on crime requires real resources in addition to rhetoric.

And, in a sense, the settlement amounts to recompense for the raw deal that policing in Lancashire got last year - when the force's settlement was much lower than those of others and left it in such a parlous state that, had Mr Straw not been more generous this time, its budget plans had no scope for any new growth this year and, indeed, longer-term entailed £14 million in cuts over the coming five years.

If that grim prospect has not been dispelled at a stroke by Mr Straw, at least the shorter-term effects of the prospect of cuts in front-line police numbers seems to have been.

Chief Constable Pauline Clare tells us this deal should help the force achieve its top priority of maintaining police officer numbers. We share this priority and would be even more reassured if the prospect included an increase in numbers.

Mr Straw signals some acceptance of this concern - which exists nationwide and to which he himself pandered politically, with his subsequently-criticised party-conference hype on police numbers - by setting up a new fund which aims to get more bobbies on the beat and to recruit 5,000 more officers over the next three years.

He will be held to this - and the measure of his commitment must be positive police settlements like this one every year.

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