Focusing on Hambleton, Richmondshire, northern parts of Craven and Ryedale, the A1 in Harrogate, and the A171 Moor Road corridor near Whitby, the operation aimed to ensure criminals could not prey on the county’s rural communities undetected.

From the evening of Wednesday 30 September 2020, into the early hours of this morning, 43 officers from North Yorkshire Police’s Neighbourhood Policing Teams and Rural Taskforce joined 51 Rural Watch volunteers on patrol as part of Operation Checkpoint.

Eighty-five per cent of North Yorkshire is classed as very rural or super-sparse, with a population density five times below the national average – highlighting the importance of information about suspicious activity from members of the public who know their local areas.

Operation Checkpoint aims to ensure these rural communities are ‘no-go areas’ for criminals.

Overnight, officers in North Yorkshire checked more than 80 vehicles, and carried out police checks on more than 20 people to ensure everything was in order. Those deterred by the operation included a group of suspected poachers in the Castleton area.

North Yorkshire Police co-ordinated with colleagues in Cleveland, Durham, Cumbria, Lancashire and Northumbria to provide high-visibility crime-fighting coverage across the North of England.

Sergeant Stuart Grainger, of North Yorkshire Police’s Rural Taskforce, said: “All of us were policing the rural area, looking for cross-border thieves, fly-tippers, poachers, and drink drivers. We were supported by an excellent number of volunteer Rural Watch members, who worked into the early hours.”

It tells us that Alan has called for the £1.8 million rural funding grant which was recently cut to be reinstated. He has made no comment on how the money could be spent. I have some views if he would like to ask me!

“Conservative councils think the government’s plan to introduce elected commissioners for every UK force will put policing at risk, previously unseen papers show.

The papers, obtained under the Freedom of Information act, show nearly two-thirds of the 37 Tory-run councils that responded to the government’s consultation on police reform failed to give any direct support for elected commissioners.

Instead most raised deep concerns, including that commissioners, due to be elected for the first time in May 2012, would undermine policing, be costly while forces were cutting back, lead to extremist candidates getting elected, concentrate too much power in one person’s hands, create more bureaucracy and increase taxes.”

The article suggests the cost of elections and implementation for the scheme will be over £125 million.

I have no intention of getting into the political debate about the rights and wrongs of this policy idea – I just find it interesting to reflect that it clearly seems very unpopular with a significant number of rural authorities many of the same political hue as the Government.

Has anyone thought through the likely rural implications of these proposals as part of the scrutiny of the decision to have these roles?