Countryside areas continue to be poorly-policed and more needs to be done to protect those who live there, a Somerset MP has warned.
Ian Liddell-Grainger said it was clear rural areas were still being left under-resourced, leading to families feeling unsafe and even threatened.
He was speaking after the release of a survey revealing nearly six out of 10 people living in the countryside do not think rural policing has improved since Police and Crime Commissioners were introduced in 2012.
There are currently 39 PPCs who are elected to make sure the police are run properly. Elections for their successors will be held in May.
But three out of four of the 2,000-plus people who took part in the survey say crime has got worse in the last 12 months. Twelve per cent feel unsafe after dark in their homes or communities – and 42 per cent feel less safe than they did five years ago.
Sixteen per cent say they have considered moving or leaving their local area because of crime – and 44 per cent have “felt intimidated by criminality or criminals” over the last year.
Mr Liddell-Grainger, MP for Bridgwater and West Somerset, said it was clear the appointment of PPCs had done little, if anything, to make the countryside more safe.
“No-one regarded their arrival as a sort of magic wand but there was a feeling that they might bring pressure to bear on police forces to sharpen up in areas where police cover was thin on the ground,” he said.
“It just hasn’t happened. The Avon and Somerset force, for instance, is entirely happy to concentrate resources in town and city at the expense of rural areas - which is how on one occasion quoted to me one PCSO was the only night-time officer covering more than 250 square miles of Exmoor.
“Policing in country areas has been steadily downgraded since the first wave of village police station closures and it really should surprise no-one either that rural crime is on the up, or that increasingly farmers see little point in reporting theft and criminal damage because they know there is little chance of anything being done about it.
“But when people are actually living in fear in rural homes it is clear that a major redistribution of police resources is not only desirable but urgently required.”
