WE are pleased that the Chief Constable has agreed to meet the people of Craven to discuss the review into police structures.

However, there appears to be growing confusion about the main issue, with several people thinking it is the relocation of police radio control rooms which is under discussion. In fact that decision has already been taken and the Skipton radio control room will close. The police insist that this will not have any effect on operations and will actually improve communications.

But that it is a relatively minor issue compared with the threat to locally controlled policing which may be the result of this review. Far more worrying than the loss of the radio control room is the possibility that the Skipton division as a whole will be scrapped; the area would lose its superintendent and be administered from somewhere far distant, where Craven concerns play second fiddle and senior officers have much less empathy with this part of the world.

That is why we have launched our campaign to ensure that the huge improvement in crime figures and relations with the community which date from when the Skipton division was formed are not reversed.

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