CASH-STRAPPED police chiefs in Lancashire aim to rake in almost £2million a year in sponsorship to help cover the cost of tackling crime and patrolling the county.

Top-ranking officers are looking at a series of new ways of increasing revenue from sponsors, which currently stands at £60,000.

New measures likely to be introduced include charging for policing private events and a massive increase in sponsorship including companies paying for logos to be placed on force vehicles.

A team set up to look at ways of increasing outside funding, wants annual sponsorship money for the force increased from £60,000 a year to almost £2million.

Policing the county cost £182 million this year and the constabulary's budget increase from the Home Office was much lower than expected.

Long term savings also mean £14million worth of cuts are being made in the police force over the next five years.

A Force Project Team was set up to look at sponsorship policy and ways of increasing revenue.

Under the current guidelines, police are allowed to accept £1.8 million in sponsorship every financial year.

But experts estimate the average amount raised in sponsorship came to just £60,000 on average every year for the last five years. The project team has drawn up a new set of guidelines designed to maximise fund-raising efforts.

Companies offering sponsorship money will be vetted to make sure they are not involved in criminal activities.

And sponsorship would not be accepted from firms involved in businesses which would not fit in with the force's public profile - such as betting and the licensed trade.

The team says it is vitally important for the force to appoint a commercial development officer.

The civilian officer's job would be to look at ways of increasing funding and bring in money from government grants and cash from the European Union. And changes to the way cash is accepted by the police force are also on the cards.

Divisional commanders would be given the authority to accept gifts and agree to sponsorship deals up to £10,000.

The police force would also go out and actively seek sponsorship rather than waiting for deals to be proposed.

A fresh look at charges for policing private events is also being planned. The police historically charge for crowd control at football matches but there are plans to charge other organisations holding private functions.

The new measures were being discussed today at a finance and general purposes committee meeting.

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