A POLICE commissioner and head of a rural crime organisation is calling on the Government to reconsider proposed changes in police funding – which do not take into account the cost of rural policing or time spent on issues not related to crime, such as road safety or welfare.

North Yorkshire Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan will today (Tuesday, September 1) launch a Rural Policing Matters campaign by the National Rural Crime Network (NRCN).

The network, which is chaired by Mrs Mulligan, is urging the Government to rethink proposed changes to how police forces are funded. She says the new formula does not take into account the unit-cost of policing a rural area, or reflect the majority of work police do which is not crime-related such as road safety, or responding to welfare issues affecting vulnerable people.

North Yorkshire is one of the largest geographical police force areas in the country, containing 6,000 miles of roads and is one of the forces likely to be badly affected if the new funding formula is introduced.

The network will be encouraging as many rural residents as possible to respond to the Government’s consultation individually, urging the new police funding formula to recognise the inbuilt complexities of dealing with crime in rural, isolated areas.

It comes as research from the NRCN, which will be released next month, shows trust in policing is much lower than residents of urban areas, and that only a third of people living or working in rural areas believe the police are responding to issues of concern to them, compared to two-thirds nationally. Rural crime is also significantly under-reported.

Mrs Mulligan said: “There is real concern both from representatives of rural communities like our Network, and those communities themselves, that without proper resourcing for rural police forces than some crimes and anti-social behaviour might not get the attention they deserve.

“Trust in policing is already very low, especially when compared to urban residents, and if the government doesn’t sufficiently recognise the needs of rural people, and therefore rural policing, that trust will only diminish. We may then be in a vicious cycle of under-reporting, because of lack of trust and resources to deal with issues, which will then lead to further under-reporting.”

“If you are a concerned member of a rural community, we want you to make your voice heard by responding directly to the Government’s consultation, and to sign the ‘rural policing matters’ petition. You can find all the information on the network’s website.”

You can read more about the issues, write to the Government or sign the petition at; www.nationalruralcrimenetwork.net/work/rural-policing-matters/