A SURVEY of customers by a shopkeeper in Hatherleigh has revealed that local residents would be prepared to pay an extra £2 a week for more police officers.
Figures by the Home Office released two weeks ago revealed that West Devon was the second safest area of the country ? but Hatherleigh parishioners want to make sure it stays that way with higher visibility policing.
The survey was carried out by Jacky Entwistle, who runs a general store with her husband, John, in Hatherleigh, after reading that Devonport in Plymouth had been allocated £230,000 a year from a regeneration fund to
provide eight extra officers.
Mrs Entwistle said she had done it on a whim but when 80 per cent of the people she surveyed responded in a positive way she decided to present it to the police liaison meeting at Hatherleigh Town Hall.
?We do not have a high crime rate, that is true, but we have vandalism and petty crime and there are elderly people who do not feel safe to go out on their own,? she said.
?Our community constable is very good, but he has to cover such a vast area and people committing crimes are aware that once he has left the town, he will be gone for some time. We need someone based here all the time.?
She said people seemed to be quite happy to pay an extra £2 a week which would bring in thousands of pounds per year.
?We have been labelled the second safest area in the country but we would like to stay that way,? added Mrs Entwistle. ?Everybody knowing this fact is not necessarily a good thing because it could attract trouble or we could get even less officers on the beat in West Devon.?
Mayor of the town Dennis Bater said he applauded Mrs Entwistle for her survey, but when it came down to it he did not believe people would be quite so reasonable when their council tax bills demanded an extra £104 a year.
?We would be paying extra for something we are already paying for and I don?t think the majority of people would want to do that,? he said. ?Fear of crime is the biggest problem around here and the intense media coverage on crime has made people nervous and jumpy.?
District commander of West Devon Police Chief Inspector Mike Brooks said there was obviously not widespread concern in Hatherleigh about crime because only four members of the community turned up at the recent police liaison meeting.
?Hatherleigh is the quietest part of the second safest area in the country and there were only 50 crimes altogether in the parish last year and this includes crimes like milk bottle thefts,? he said.
?When you measure this against other parts of Devon and Cornwall, let alone other areas of the country, we cannot justify anymore officers.?
Chief Insp Brooks said Hatherleigh?s community constable Mark Hoar was one of his best officers and he, together with work being done by the Community Safety Partnership, had helped to make the town as safe as it was.
?In the case of Devonport?s extra police officers, the money has come from a Government fund that deals with national deprivation,? he added.
?Only three areas of Devon and Cornwall have been selected and it is a scheme that is concerned with poverty, education and health.?