Fears of funding cut in war on rural criminals

‘They are organised gangs and ready to use violence’

RURAL CRIME must be taken more seriously, key agricultural leaders have claimed, amid fears that a belief police not taking the incidents seriously will lead to cuts to funding.

The Countryside Alliance (CLA) and NFU today both call on candidates in next month’s police and crime commissioner elections to put rural crime at the forefront of their campaigns.

CLA chief executive Tim Bonner feared that if people did not report the crimes because they believe they would not be dealt with this would lead to a reduction in funding for tackling issues if the statistics did not support investment.

“It’s critically important,” Mr Bonner said as his organisation launched their manifesto for police and crime commissioners today exclusively with The Yorkshire Post.

He added: “The real danger is rural policing gets locked into a cycle of decline because the perception is the police are not taking it seriously.

“The theft of a tractor is just as relevant as someone’s factory being trashed in a town. These are often serious, organised criminals and they are prepared to commit violent acts.”

Recently released statistics compiled by the CLA last year for the police and crime commissioner elections, which were then cancelled, showed 59 per cent of people in South Yorkshire did not think police took rural crime seriously. In the Humberside Police area this was 53 per cent, 52 per cent in West Yorkshire and 47 per cent in North Yorkshire.

Nationally, the figure was 47 per cent and 57 per cent of the 8,000 people surveyed said tackling rural crime had not improved since crime commissioners were introduced in 2012.

The CLA has put forward six recommendations in their manifesto, which it is hoped will be picked up by candidates across the political spectrum.

These include specific rural crime teams and encouraging people to report rural crime.

The CLA found just one in four people did not report it when they were a victim of rural crime in the belief “it was either a waste of their time to report it or that the police would not be able to do anything”.

It comes as results from an NFU survey of nearly 2,000 farmers across the country found they were facing average losses of £4,400 as a result of rural crime and nearly 60 per cent of respondents said they believed crime levels were increasing.

Yorkshire farmers are spending far more than the national five-year average of £3,994, clocking up an average spend of £5,453 on preventing crime on their property.

And the NFU found wildlife crime, particularly hare coursing, was most likely to be experienced, with 51 per cent of victims in Yorkshire and the North East saying they were subjected to regular farm invasions.