Silsden residents pay £170,000 a year for policing - but only have one part-time officer to patrol the streets.

However, a police chief has defended the figures, saying the cash is spent on back-up officers based at Keighley.

Silsden has one part-time officer based in the town following the departure of another part-time officer last year. Some residents are angry that thousands of pounds are paid to West Yorkshire Police through council tax, but the town appears to get little in return.

The amount of money contributed by Silsden people was revealed at a meeting of the town's parish council last Thursday.

But Chief Insp Steve Hobson said the part-time officer was dedicated to patrolling Silsden, Steeton and Eastburn, with other officers providing round-the-clock cover from Keighley.

"If Silsden suddenly became the crime centre of the Keighley division then most of our resources would be here," he said, adding that another part-time officer would be appointed soon.

But Coun Chris Atkinson asked him: "Is prevention not better than cure? Twenty crimes in Silsden is 20 crimes too many. If we had a police officer on the beat 24 hours a day there wouldn't be any crimes."

Mr Hobson admitted there had been more staff at Silsden's police station in the past. But he argued: "If we were sat here tonight saying that crime in Silsden is going through the roof then I could understand it, but with limited resources we're actually doing a blooming good job. The reality is that crime in Silsden is going down - and going down dramatically."

Coun Michael Elsmore added that the parish council's argument should be with the Home Office which controlled spending on the police force.

Crime figures revealed the number of burglaries and violent crimes in Silsden had fallen considerably over the last 12 months, compared with the previous year. Only incidents involving vehicles were on the increase. In 1998/99 there were 152 burglaries in Silsden, compared with 52 in 1999/00.

The town saw 15 violent crimes in the last 12 months, with 24 the previous year.

Mr Hobson added that he was in the process of interviewing staff for the part-time position at Silsden.

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