LESS than two years since Craven won a battle to keep all its police functions in Skipton, the division is facing a an even bigger threat.

North Yorkshire Police are carrying out a comprehensive boundary and structure review which could spell the end of Craven's very existence as a self-contained division.

It is looking at various options, ranging from having eight divisions, co-terminus with local authority boundaries, to having just one division covering the whole of the county.

There are fears that merger is a very high possibility for Craven because of its size and low crime figures.

Skipton is already set to lose its new control room as the force has decided to build two purpose built centres to house the very latest technology.

Now it seems that the division's whole management could be moved elsewhere, and, at worst, the area could be left with just an inspector in charge.

Even when Craven was part of Harrogate, it had a chief inspector to oversee matters, and the division is currently run by a superintendent, assisted by a chief inspector, and four inspectors.

The review team has consulted local staff, and has also met district council chairman, Coun Janet Gott, who also chairs the new Community Safety Partnership and the local Crime Prevention Panel.

She told the Herald: "We do not want anything taken away, and hopefully the review team went away more enlightened.

"We want Craven to stay as it is, and not be amalgamated with somewhere else. It is an horrific idea -- we do not want someone miles away saying what is going to happen here. We want someone on the spot.

"In fact, we could be more demoted than before we became a division. Then we had a chief inspector, but in future we could be down to an inspector. It does not make sense to me. And how can community safety work if the management is miles away?

"I do feel very strongly that we are being disregarded once again -- it is very depressing that we seem to be fighting a battle all the time. It is yet another instance of Craven being out on a limb."

The division came into being in the early 1990s and last year recorded the highest crime reduction figures in North Yorkshire -- 20.3 per cent -- while maintaining the county's best detection rate -- 39.3 per cent.

Now, the review team will come up with options to put before the chief officers in September, and these are then expected to be the subject of further consultation.

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