HOUSEHOLDERS should send packing anyone selling door-to-door if they haven't got a valid Peddlar's Certificate, members of the Wharfedale Police Community Forum heard.

At the meeting at Addingham Middle School this week, residents asked for advice on youths calling and offering to sell cleaning materials.

Neighbourhood Watch officer Police Constable Steve Littlewood told the meeting that anyone selling door to door without a Peddlar's Certificate was breaking the law.

He also said that members of the public could contact Neighbourhood Watch for 'Doorstep Alert' stickers which state that that no-one in the house was prepared to buy goods on the doorstep.

The meeting was also told that women are more likely to be raped in their own homes than walking the streets at night.

Around 80 per cent of rapes happened within a partnership, rather than as the result of an attack by a stranger, said Carol Walters.

Miss Walters is the project co-ordinator for the Surviving Trauma After Rape (STAR) project in West Yorkshire.

She said that the project offered immediate and confidential counselling to victims of sexual assault.

"The whole aim of STAR is that we offer a service as soon as possible to help victims cope with life much

better," Miss Walters said.

She told the meeting at Addingham Middle School that there were 77 rapes in Bradford last year.

The STAR project is jointly funded by West Yorkshire Police and health authorities in the West Yorkshire area.

As well as female victims of sexual assault the STAR project also offered counselling for victims of male rape, said Miss Walters.

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