MORE than 1,000 police officers are to qualify for extra pay in a bid to stop the growing numbers quitting Kent to take better-paid jobs with the Metropolitan Force.

Kent Police is to pay officers working in some areas an additional £1,752 a year in an effort to keep them working in the county and halt a mounting recruitment crisis.

Officers in west Kent - Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Sevenoaks - Medway and north Kent will be eligible for the extra cash from January.

But bonuses are not being offered to those working elsewhere in the county. In the first six months of this year, 26 officers have left Kent for the Met, compared to 24 in the whole of last year.

Kent Police Authority chairman Cllr John Palmer said he understood why there may be reservations over the scheme.

“This has been a difficult decision. The money for these payments will have to be met by council taxpayers but we are already losing too many officers to the Metropolitan Police. Put simply, Kent just cannot afford to lose any more experienced officers.”

Ian Pointon, of the Kent Police Federation, said the scheme would be divisive. He said: "What message does this send to other officers in the county? Our view is that these issues need to be resolved by the Home Office with money from central Government.

He stressed: "We may cure the problems of retention in one area but create the same problem elsewhere.”

Under Home Office rules allowing extra payments, only 40 per cent of officers can receive what are known as Special Priority Payments.