Police chiefs reveal their plans for the coming year

In April, five LAP (Local Area Policing) areas were created in Craven under the North Yorkshire Police structure review.

These were Skipton, Cross Hills, Grassington, Settle and Ingleton, which will all have their own specific policing plans, drawn up after public consultation.

Under the new arrangements Skipton will have an inspector in charge, with the other areas commanded by a sergeant.

Supt Andy Parker said: "The overall priority for policing in North Yorkshire during the coming year is to reduce crime and the fear of crime in our local communities.

"By concentrating on locally identified issues, and delivering the service through locally based officers, the LAP service plans will play a fundamental role in achieving this priority."

The current inspector at Skipton, Chris Chelton, will be stepping down shortly to allow colleague Insp Peter Lambert to take over.

Insp Chelton told the Herald that one of the main objectives for Skipton would be to tackle drugs misuse through "proactive, intelligence led operations against local drug dealers".

Insp Chelton said the target was to increase the number of arrests for drugs and drug-related offences by 10 per cent.

The town's other objectives included clamping down on nuisance and anti-social behaviour, highlighted as problems in the recent crime audit undertaken by the division.

The plan aims to take effective action against this behaviour and also alcohol related disorder in Skipton town centre and on the residential estates.

Insp Chelton said: "We want to improve the quality of life on the residential estates and we plan to write to the parents of young people who come to our notice. If they are repeat offenders we'll help support parents to curb anti-social behaviour."

Another area which Insp Chelton said would be targeted in Skipton was the number of people reported for urinating in public places.

The final policing objective for the Skipton area was to target local and travelling criminals who committed shoplifting offences.

Officers hope to increase the number of shoplifters arrested or reported by 10 per cent, and also increase the number of times the Shop Watch radio link is used.

Insp Chelton said: "The Shop Watch radio link is very effective and it has helped make up some of the ground lost by the CCTV bid. There's still a long way to go as we're still getting shoplifters from outside the area who see us as a soft touch and we want to dispel that myth."

Each LAP plan for the different areas in Skipton have been formulated to tackle the specific and often unique problems.

The LAP service plan for the Grassington and Skipton Rural area will be overseen by Sgt Kevin Franks.

The major aims in this area are to respond to complaints of youths causing disorder and nuisance in the local villages with high visibility patrols, and to address the problems of poaching and other wildlife offences in the rural areas, utilising other agencies as appropriate.

Finally the problem of theft from motor vehicles at beauty spots will also be tackled.

Sgt Franks said: "We especially want to target youth disorder in the local villages which often appears in the form of shouting and swearing and young people generally running around and causing a nuisance. This problem annoys people more than anything else and we receive a considerable amount of complaints about this."

He added that the problem of poaching was also a major concern because of the large farming community.

Sgt Franks added that the target would be to generate "better liaison" between wildlife groups in the community and increase by 10 per cent the number of offenders arrested or reported.

He said the final target area of thefts from motor vehicles was one which cropped up year on year.

Sgt Franks said: "This probably makes up a considerable proportion of the overall crime in this area and we will be tackling it again this year."

The aim is to reduce these crimes by a total of five per cent.

Over in Cross Hills, the problems faced by LAP commander Sgt Steve Scott are once again particular to that area.

The service plan for Cross Hills aims to adopt a proactive approach to drug abuse through intelligence led operations against both dealers and users.

The plan also aims to target both local and travelling criminals who commit burglaries in the Cross Hills area through high-profile patrols and intelligence-led operations aimed at specific offenders.

Finally it calls for a proactive approach in the villages towards people who ride pedal cycles and park vehicles on the pavements causing obstruction.

Sgt Scott said: "The issues which have been raised include the number of drugs problems in the area and the problems that we appear to be having with travelling criminals who by and large come in from the Keighley area and then disperse over the border.

"Pavement behaviour is another problem and the South Craven Elderly Initiative Group has raised concerns on the number of elderly people wandering around the village being obstructed by pedal cycles. There is also a problem at dinner times in Cross Hills with the hordes of children from South Craven School who come out for their lunch, hang around in groups and there's further concern about the amount of litter they create."

He added: "In the past we've had policemen standing at the end of the street as a deterrent to the kids to stop dropping litter but that's just not cost effective."

Over in North Craven, Settle will be looked after by LAP commander Sgt Andy Bates, while Sgt Cris Pappin will have responsibility for Ingleton.

Sgt Pappin said: "Ingleton and Settle are very similar in the problems they face."

In Ingleton, he said, he would be focusing on taking a pro-active approach to the problems of drug abuse through direct law enforcement and preventative education.

He would also be concentrating on tackling thefts from motor vehicles by using pro-active measures such as targeted patrols and working with organisations such as the Yorkshire Dales National Park Authority on crime prevention initiatives.

Another aim in Ingleton's policing plan is to promote road safety by targeting speeding and parking offences.

He said: "We particularly want to target road safety on the A65 as we are inundated with complaints about speeding traffic through the villages. We also get complaints about the many parking offences."

In Settle the problems facing the area are very similar to those in Ingleton, although Sgt Andy Bates will also be targeting drink-driving in the Settle area.

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