POLICE officers in North Kent are to be offered extra money to try and stop them being lured to better paid jobs in London.

In the first six months of this year 26 Kent policemen switched to the neighbouring Metropolitan Police where the starting salary for new constables is nearly £5,000 higher than in Kent.

Now the Kent Police Authority is attempting to stem this flow by paying a retention allowance to officers working in North Kent, including Gravesend, Dartford and the Medway Towns. The KPA hopes the extra money will prevent officers from being tempted to switch to the Met.

The new allowance was agreed at a meeting of the police authority on Wednesday although how much it will actually be has yet to be decided.

The KPA says the allowance will take effect from January 1, 2004, and the exact sum will be determined once it has taken into consideration pay differentials with other police forces.

KPA Chairman John Palmer said: "There is an urgent need to address the growing problem of officers leaving the force. We have to acknowledge that the Met's financial package will be attractive to our staff and we have to do everything possible to recognise and reward our skilled and experienced officers.

"We have decided to act now before our capability to respond to calls from the public and deal effectively with crime are affected. Bearing in mind tight financial constraints, we shall continue to work on this issue, taking into account what other forces in similar positions are offering to their officers."

Twenty-four Kent officers transferred to the Met in 2002-03 and this year's annual total is expected to be considerably higher.

In Kent a new recruit is paid £18,666, with an additional allowance of £2,000 a year on top of that. In the Met a new recruit starts on £25,446 per year, which after completion of the initial 18 weeks training course at Hendon rises to £27,6881 annually.