IT would be quite easy for any Ingleton resident to assume that PC David Burgess is like any other bobby on the beat. Someone who knows the area like the back of his hand, a familiar face in the local community.

These presumptions could go uncorrected - that is until PC Burgess opens his mouth to reveal a strong Cockney accent and a penchant for Millwall Football Club.

For PC Burgess is just one of a wave of new policemen to hit Craven in a bid to combat one of the worst shortages in manpower the area has seen. At the beginning of this year, the situation was so bad, there were fears that one of the most rural and therefore isolated parts of the district - North Craven - would be left without 24-hour police cover.

Twenty-seven-year-old PC Burgess, originally from south-east London, has travelled more than 200 miles from London's Metropolitan Police Force, which he joined in 1997, to take up the post of local bobby serving Ingleton.

He joins around 12 other policemen who by October/November time will have either been recruited or been transferred from forces all over the country to the district.

PC Burgess told the Herald that after three years of policing with the MET, he had actively sought a transfer to a rural location.

He said: "I was looking for something in a rural community where the quality of life would be better, at a slower pace and without the traffic jams!"

PC Burgess added that any stereotypical images of rural policing as shown on television programmes such as Heartbeat soon went out of the window when he came to Ingleton as he arrived in the midst of the foot and mouth crisis.

He said: "It's a lot different than what I first expected. I didn't realise how much you were basically left alone to get on with things and that you are trusted to deal with everything."

PC Burgess added: "People up here give you a bit more respect. They seem to have a better attitude than people down in London."

In the Met, PC Burgess's average day would consist of juggling up to 15 individual crimes at any one time including domestic violence incidents, attending road traffic accidents, trying to catch shoplifters and investigating robberies.

Some of the nastier incidents he had to deal with included attending serious assault cases and breaking up pub fights, and investigating drug dealing in night clubs on Friday and Saturday nights.

"It was quite a fast pace of work, but there were so many other bobbies that you helped each other out. Here there's not as much manpower and back up plus the distance between each call out is a lot bigger."

However, he added that he enjoyed the fact there was a lot more interaction with the local community and the range of call outs he attended included dealing with sheep on the road to giving talks to local schoolchildren.

It was Craven's Chief Inspector Nick Smedley and Inspector Tad Nowakowski, were responsible for over-seeing the full-scale recruitment drive as part of a county-wide initiative.

Chief Insp Smedley told the Herald there has probably never been such a large influx of new policemen to the area in one single initiative.

He said: "If you look back over the years, you'd be hard-pressed to find a period like it when so many new policemen were being taken on. Historically this force has not recruited many new officers, mainly because of financial reasons."

Chief Insp Smedley added that many of the new recruits had come from the larger forces such as West Yorkshire and could only bring advantages to policing in the area.

"I think it's good for the force as you get people working here who are very experienced police officers and are trained to high standards. They bring with them qualities and ideas they have picked up from other forces, which can then be shared with us.

"Also, to officers who used to work in places like Keighley or Bradford, policing in Skipton on a Friday or Saturday night is nothing to what they are used to."

He added: "Now we have got Craven up to strength, we're going to make the most of the new recruits and will be looking at how best we can use the staff.

"We'll be increasing high profile foot patrols and looking at forming a small team to concentrate on those problem areas. We're looking at possibly doing this at the end of this month."