THE lack of 24-hour manning at Thirsk police station has been an issue of concern in the town for many years. Residents have taken exception to having to use a phone mounted on the outside of the station in Westgate to contact a police officer, usually in Northallerton.

Now that concern has been supplemented by worries about how few officers are seen in the town centre. Last week, one businessman said he only ever saw a policeman when one called to collect his sandwiches from the cafe he runs in the market place.

Leaving aside the very local issue of sickness among the officers who normally cover the town, questions of police station opening hours and "bobbies on the beat" are central to the continuing debate about policing.

Police chiefs may well argue that having an officer sitting behind a desk in Westgate is not a good use of his or her time. Some may also argue that, in terms of effectiveness in dealing with crime incidents, having policemen on the beat is not the way to bring down crime statistics. And a view has also been advanced this week that the shift towards beat policing has meant fewer traffic patrols and a consequent increase in bad driving and deaths on the roads.

The problem for the police is that the public is increasingly strident in its demands for 24-hour manning of police stations, beat bobbies and plenty of traffic patrols while chief constables have to grapple with finite resources. In some forces, North Yorkshire and County Durham among them, the resource issue is getting even more difficult as the problem of police pensions grows. Every year the pension money paid out to retired officers eats into the money available for operational policing. The situation will get worse before it gets better.

The public has to decide what is more important. Does it rate the visible presence above the open police station door or the effective policing of the highway. Sadly, it cannot have it all