WEST Craven's police officers have been assigned their "beats" under the new system of Geographical Policing, which comes into effect from next Monday.

As revealed in last week's Craven Herald, the system is being hailed by many as a return to old-style policing, with each officer assigned their own beat.

In fact, the police are keen to point out that the new system combines the best elements of old-style policing with the best of modern policing and the technology it involves.

Under the new area-based system, each officer will police his or her own "beat", forging strong links with the people there.

Time and again the police have stressed they can only do their job effectively with the co-operation and support of the community, and the hope is that this new system will strengthen those bonds.

It will still be the case that any officer on duty could be called to an incident, but after that first call-out, the job will pass to the beat officer for that area, who will carry out all the follow-up work.

Because that breeds continuity, officers will be able to see patterns emerging, recognise particular problems in their area, and get to know who are the persistent offenders there. Other administrative changes mean officers will have less paperwork to complete, allowing them to spend more time on the beat. They may even work in plain clothes at times to deal with specific problems, such as juvenile nuisance.

Local parish and town councillors have welcomed the new system, which has already run as a successful pilot scheme in the Fleetwood area.

This week, West Craven's police officers were assigned their beats.

Those already working as "community beat officers" and having built links in partiucular areas will continue working there, although their new beats will be slightly smaller.

Occasionally some officers will cover two of the quieter beats to cover for temporary staffing shortfalls through sickness, holidays, maternity leave and so on. But at no time will any of West Craven's 20 new beats be left without an officer assigned to them.

While it is virtually impossible to describe the new beats to the exact street, what follows is a rough guide to the various areas and which officers are responsible for them.

Barnoldswick and the surrounding area has been divided into a dozen beats:

1. The town centre goes to PC John Holding, who has already done a lot of work there.

2. The "poets' corner" area, off Gisburn Road, goes to PC Fiona Barlow.

3. Monkroyd is the beat for PC Dave Gaukroger.

4. "The Avenues" area, off Skipton Road, goes to PC George Riley.

5. An area centred on Colin Street and including Victory Park goes to PC Fiona King.

6. The beat from the police station to Ouzledale Foundry goes to PC Simon Peyton.

7. The Colne Road/Manchester Road beat, including Letcliffe, goes to PC Stuart Holland.

8. A beat centred along Park Road is assigned to PC Mark Hyde.

9. The high school side of Kelbrook Road, down to Coates, goes to PC Tony Morris.

10. The Coates Lane/Ghyll Meadows area goes to PC Lorraine Smith.

11. Coates estate stays with PC Brendan Woods.

12. Bracewell and the Fosters Arms area of Barnoldswick goes to PC Lorraine Smith.

The rest of West Craven is divided into eight beats:

1. Earby centre, including the shopping area, stays with PC Brian Pepper.

2. Earby north, stretching up Stoney Bank Road, goes to PC Jim Hollingworth.

3. Earby south goes to PC Jim Ryder.

4. A beat between Colne Road and Earby Beck goes to PC Steve Hooper.

5. The North Holme estate goes to PC Martin Hopkinson.

6. Sough is covered by PC Sue McNicholas.

7. Kelbrook will also be covered by PC McNicholas for the time being.

8. Salterforth goes to PC Tony Morris.

Detailed maps showing precisely which streets are covered by the new beats are being obtained by the police, who hope to have them by early next month.

They will then go on public display at locations to be announced later.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.