THE Home Secretary, Mr David Blunkett, was given a taste of life on the beat of a rural bobby in Bedale yesterday.

The visit was arranged by Bedale police officer, PC Malcolm Young. "I met him in May when he was doing the BBC's Any Questions programme as part of the Bedale 750 celebrations," said PC Young.

"We had drinks afterwards and I got talking to him. I said I was fed up with hearing on the news about what the Metropolitan police do or don't do, and said it was about time we heard more about rural police forces. So I asked him to come out with me and he said yes."

The Home Secretary spent about two hours in Bedale. Guided by PC Young, he went on a walk around the market place before being taken on a wider tour of the area in a panda car.

He thanked PC Young for inviting him to Bedale. "I have been impressed firstly by Malcolm's commitment," he said.

"Part of doing the job well is being a part of the community and having the right intelligence - to be able to pick things up, to know what is going on and to be able to anticipate things and prevent them from happening. And he has quite rightly given me an earwigging about getting the level of paperwork down as well."

Mr Blunkett used his visit to launch the Diary of a Police Officer, a booklet commissioned by the Home Office looking at the daily routines of police officers from across the country.

The book breaks down how the average officer spends his day and makes recommendations of possible changes to make the police force more efficient, such as introducing more civilian support staff.

"I don't want those who are not uniformed officers to do what only a uniformed officer should be doing," he said.

"But equally I don't want police officers' time taken up with paperwork and bureaucracy. There are lots of ways we could look at lifting that aspect of the job from officers."

Mr Blunkett responded immediately to one rural policing problem by announcing an extra £1m of funding for North Yorkshire police.

The cash, which will be paid out over two years, aims to avoid a repeat performance of overstretched resources during the anti-US protests at Menwith Hill and RAF Fylingdales earlier this year.

Mr Blunkett said: "People have a right to peaceful protest, but there is a cost attached which unfortunately the taxpayer has to bear. I am determined that the people of North Yorkshire should not suffer as a result."

PC Young, aged 52, who retires at the end of November after 30 years in the force, said: "I think that PCs are getting a raw deal.

"All the ranks above us are managers now. We have more officers in the force than probably we have ever had and we have still got less police actually out on the streets."