Bradford policing could be hit by the axing of a national training centre which will mean the West Yorkshire force having to train its own recruits.

Centrex, the national police training body, is closing one of its centres in Durham at the end of March, due to a cut in Government funding and a recommendation for more non-residential training.

West Yorkshire Police sends many of its probationary officers to the centre on residential courses, but from June they will be trained at the force school in Wakefield. It is feared the switch could impact on the force's annual budget - leading to either increased police council tax charges or cuts in services.

Councillor Clive Richardson, deputy chairman and Bradford member of West Yorkshire Police Authority, said the Home Office had told the authority it would provide almost £1 million in start-up and revenue grants for the first year of training, but that was still subject to confirmation.

"It's probably going to be better for us, as long as we get the money," said Coun Richardson. "But one downside is we'll initially only be training our own officers and not recruits from other forces, which we did as an experiment last year.

"The benefit of training other force's recruits is money. The force training school does earn quite a lot of money which offsets the need to put up council tax even more."

There were also concerns about space at the training school. He said: "The force training school also does other forms of training, for detectives and firearms officers, for instance. Every day there are officers training, not just from West Yorkshire."

Coun Richardson said Centrex had offered the force places for recruits at its training centre in Warrington for March and May but the force would start training its students, in six-weekly 60-strong intakes, from early June.

West Yorkshire Police Federation chairman Tom McGhie said: "Our budget includes sending money to Centrex for use of their facilities. As I understand it, we are not going to get that back but we are going to have to shoulder the cost of our own training.

"We are planning to recruit 400 officers from April and the initial training period is 19 weeks. It seems unfair that we will be paying twice and we are concerned about the pressures it will put on the budget.

"Potentially, we will have to find the money from somewhere. It could mean increased council tax precept. If not, there is every possibility it may mean not recruiting any officers, and that is a major concern."