POLICING in rural areas could suffer as a result of plans for elected police commissioners, it was claimed yesterday.

Northumberland County Council leader Jeff Reid warned his county could lose out to Tyneside as candidates for the directly-elected Northumbria police and crime commissioner post are more likely to appeal to urban areas.

Former Durham police chief Lord Mackenzie expressed similar concerns and fears of extreme candidates coming forward to take advantage of powers to hire and fire chief constables as well as set the force’s budget and “strategic direction”.

Their warnings come after Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday received recommendations that directly-elected police commissioners should earn between £65,000 and £100,000 a year.

The Senior Salaries Review Body said the person overseeing Northumbria Police should earn £85,000 compared to a £70,000 salary for their counterparts in the Cleveland and Durham forces.

She said she was considering the recommendation that would see the salary bill for the 41 new posts in forces across England and Wales total between £2.6m and £4.1m a year.

Elections for the new posts are expected to take place in November next year and candidates who are successful in the larger forces, such as West Midlands, Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire, are likely to be the paid £100,000.

Northumberland County Council leader Jeff Reid said: “It is a completely bonkers idea. I think the whole idea is a stupid Tory populist idea that is actually so unpopular. They think it is a good idea and it is not.”

He said the current system of police authorities was “about right” in terms of ensuring the accountability of forces, warning the Government’s proposals would lead to the politicisation of the police.

“The Northumbria police commissioner will be less accountable to the people of Northumberland than the system we have at the moment because an election will be fought and won in Sunderland, Newcastle and Tyneside generally – and he can afford not to bother about rural parts of Northumberland.”

He added: “There is a real chance that policing will suffer in the rural parts of Northumberland. It is certainly going to disadvantage Northumberland.”

The salary of the elected police chief could be used instead to pay officers, said the council leader.

Labour peer Lord Mackenzie, a former Durham police chief, also raised concerns over the cost and the impact on rural areas.

“The risk is that you might not be getting a balance. The whole of the police area should obviously be policed adequately,” he said.

“If it is a bias to one area because that is where the votes are, then rural areas are going to lose out. That speaks for itself.”

He also warned of the danger of extremist candidates as well as the cost of the new system put forward by the Government.