Extra pay for police is causing anger and derision within the Sussex force.

Special Priority Payments (SPP), amounting to about £20 a week, will begin later this year as part of a Home Office scheme to reward front-line officers and to attract recruits to hard-to-fill posts.

But only 40 per cent of Sussex officers will get the money and many of the remainder are furious.

Dog handlers and traffic officers expressed disgust to Chief Constable Ken Jones at a packed meeting of the Sussex branch of the Police Federation in Crawley last night.

Officers from both sections argued they should be included. They are on the frontline for most of their working hours, dealing with crash victims and criminals.

Steve Boyle, a trainee detective in Haywards Heath , said he would not be receiving the SPP and with the abolition of housing allowance, "the wolf is not just at my door, he's in my house, eating in my fridge. What he doesn't get, the bank manager has."

Detective Sergeant Dobs O'Brien, of the Major Crime Branch which deals with murders and other serious crimes, is another non recipient.

He said he was constantly on call but received no extra pay when he was called in to work extra hours.

Other forces paid call-out money and he asked Mr Jones to consider doing the same.

Graham Alexander, joint branch chairman, said: "David Blunkett must realise the scheme is not a good idea. In fact, it should be scrapped."

Mr Jones, too, was unhappy but he said he did manage to persuade Home Office minister John Denham to "spread the jam" from the original 30 per cent of officers to 40 per cent.

He said: "It is not a good idea but it was stuck on us."

SPPs, he said, promoted the feeling among some non-recipients that they were not valued and they were unhappy.

Mr Jones promised to look into the issue of call-out payments.