Cumbria's crime commissioner has hit back after being accused of wasting public money by spending £9,000 on rebranding.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has criticised Conservative Peter McCall for spending the cash at a time when the county's police force is dealing with millions of pounds of cuts.

But the Tory has criticised Mr Farron for playing politics in election season, saying: "I find the whole thing rather irritating - it’s just petty politics.”

A Freedom of Information request revealed that £8,850 has been spent on rebranding, including new logos and a new website, since Mr McCall's election last year.

Mr Farron said at the same time, Cumbria Police was last year forced to cut 69 police officers and staff.

Planned changes to the police funding formula, which would have seen Cumbria Police lose around £15million, were scrapped in 2015 but there are plans to bring back the changes.

Mr Farron, who is fighting to retain his Westmorland and Lonsdale seat at the General Election, said: “The Conservatives seem to think they can make up for slashing bobbies on the beat in Cumbria by splashing the cash on a fancy rebranding exercise.

“The people of Cumbria don’t want a swish new website or fancy new logos – they want a police force that isn’t being decimated by Conservative cuts. They want to feel safe because there are enough police to look after our area.

“This shows the Conservatives can’t be trusted to look after our police force.”

But crime commissioner Peter McCall - who marked his first year in office last week - says Mr Farron is just playing “silly politics”.

He said: “The old website was three months away from the end of its contract.

“It was very old and it wasn’t possible to update the software.

“I decided to get a new website and I went for the lower of the three tenders. I make absolutely no apology for engaging with the public - that’s what they pay me to do.”

Mr McCall said police numbers in the county were rising rather than falling.

He said: “In November 2012 there were 1,113 police officers. On April 1 this year there were 1,100 and we are recruiting for another 83.

“This makes nonsense of Mr Farron’s claim. They will have increased as a result of that."