RADICAL plans to give Liverpool its own directly elected police chief are a recipe for "blame- shifting and buck passing", a leading city councillor has warned.

Richard Kemp has condemned the idea in his key post as deputy chairman of the Local Government Association (LGA), and leader of its Liberal Democrat group.

In a letter to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Cllr Kemp and other LGA leaders have warned the idea, put forward in a policing Green Paper last month, will fail to strengthen the link between the public and their local force.

Rather, it will trigger dangerous clashes between the directly- elected figures and local councillors in the areas covered by each force, they claim.

And they call instead for existing local authority representatives on police authorities to be given extra powers to scrutinise budgets and control expenditure.

The letter creates the most significant opposition yet to the Home Office’s plans to use "people power" to fight crime, through directly-elected Crime and Policing Representatives (CPRs).

There would be one elected in each borough within two years – including in Knowsley, Sefton, St Helens and Wirral – to ensure Merseyside’s chief constable acted on local crime problems.

In Cheshire, the change would allow the people of Chester, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Halton and Warrington to elect their own police chief – as would voters in West Lancashire.

The elected leaders, who would also decide how small amounts of police funding were spent, would in turn form the majority on their police authority.

But the LGA letter reads: "In the place of substantive reforms needed to police authorities’ powers and responsibilities we have tinkering with their membership.

"Directly elected crime and policing representatives will not strengthen the link between those responsible for delivering policing and the public and will undermine partnership working.

"There are already people elected at local level to represent the community and be their advocates over a range of services – councillors. There is absolutely no rationale to setting up a parallel, and potentially conflicting system."

Cllr Kemp, who represents Church ward, used to be Liverpool’s housing leader, but has taken a back seat in city politics to throw himself into his work on a national level.

The LGA said it was so alarmed by the plans it had decided to make its fears known immediately, rather than simply respond to the official consultation.

Announcing the proposal last month, the Home Secretary said: "The public are the best weapon to help tackle crime. That is why I’m putting them at the forefront of setting priorities."

But the Association of Police Authorities (APA) warned of a "very real danger" of the BNP and other extremists hijacking the elections to seize control of local policing.