Rural crime is a problem and the army could help to solve policing shortage

BEING retired and as such residing in Stoke Golding I frequently take the labrador for a walk around the village well before 6am though would be more true to say, he being of the true solid English stock, that he drags me around in tow.

However, on arrival in the centre of the village one is confronted with a rather modern purposeful brick built post office which at present has more in common in practice with the church graveyard, just about a hundred yards away, than any other of the surrounding properties.

The reason being, quite simply, abandonment due to that blight which is hitting so many rural communities, namely crime, violent at that.

Liz Kingsley had bravely held out as faithful servant to so many grateful for this most pre- cious of amenities but having had to face criminals intent not only on grasping the takings but that of doing her actual bodily harm, not surprisingly gave up the ghost when it happened on a second occasion.

The final outcome it would seem, in the context of the police failing to get a hold of rural crime generally, is that we have been left without a most valuable asset to the village, together with its severely shaken employee.

As regards rural crime in particular, though not exclusively, I see no reason why the army could not be utilized as a resource to combat criminal activities which seem to have reached epidemic proportions in Britain today.

Far too often policing, whether to do with under investment or other factors, has become a matter of merely recording crime rather than being more proactive. At the same time I do despair when time and time again I read of criminals appearing in court with a massive string of offenses being associated with their record and yet being allowed to continue in much the same vein, thus frustrating the efforts of the police. David Abbott, Stoke

Golding