NORTH Yorkshire communities want to see more police on the beat - and they are resigned to paying more council tax to get it.

That was the message taken to the new Chief Constable of North Yorkshire, Della Cannings, at a community and policing group meeting at Sheriff Hutton, near Malton, last night.

More than 100 people crammed into the village hall to quiz Ms Cannings about the future of policing in rural areas.

Budget hikes for residents in Band D properties could be £1.30-a-week, but Ms Canning said it was vital that North Yorkshire Police had the money to pay for the improvements called for.

"I am conscious of the people on fixed and diminishing incomes," she said.

"Everything seems to be going up and I know it's extremely difficult, but don't we all want to have a safer place to live? That's the bottom line."

Ms Canning faced strong criticism that falling numbers of officers out on the beat meant rising crime in rural areas. But she said that there were many occasions when "invisible policing" came into play.

"We look and see where is the potential for problems and we put our officers there. How many of you see the officers outside pubs and clubs at kicking-out time? I used to say to an officer driving through a village at night that he should turn the siren and the blue light on when he goes past.

"One week later at a CAP meeting no one complained about a lack of police."

Ms Canning acknowledged that concentrations of police in North Yorkshire were lower because of the size of area they had to cover.

Officers in Cleveland cover 800 sq miles, she said, while the same number of officers in North Yorkshire were faced with 1,800 sq miles.

"It does get challenging in rural areas - they are what I call long miles," she admitted.

"But policing is not just down to the police, it's down to all of us in the community."

Insp Neil Burnett spoke about three arrests this week which had resulted from co-operation between Country Watch members and officers out on patrol.

Two Pontefract men driving a van filled with stolen garden equipment were stopped after a tip-off from a member of the public.

Beat officer PC Ian Aconley said it was vital residents realised they had a part to play. "Neighbourhood Watch and Country Watch members are so important. It is absolutely imperative to have these people in place - you are the eyes and ears of the police."

Updated: 12:35 Friday, January 24, 2003