Cross Hills police have launched a massive crackdown on crime in the area.

They are aiming to reduce the number of incidents in the villages of Cross Hills, Glusburn, Sutton and surrounding areas by 25 per cent.

Included in the measures are high visibility patrols, monitoring criminals crossing the borders of West Yorkshire and Lancashire, liaising with other forces and public reassurance initiatives to reduce crime and the fear of crime.

This is a long term project with the aim of dramatically cutting the crime figures by March 2004.

Acting Local Area Police (LAP) commander Sgt Martin Hick is working with Cross Hills' police on the initiative.

He said: "We are not happy about the amount of crime in the area and we want to reduce it. The majority of crime is people breaking into cars and minor damage offences.

"This is a joint enterprise with the local community. We will be contacting Neighbourhood Watch representatives, people from the community and other groups."

He added that he was not able to disclose specific details of the operations in the area but they would include bringing in more officers and concentrating on travelling criminals.

"The area is surrounded by main roads and quiet country lanes which are used and frequented by travelling criminals. It is a well-known fact that wherever an area meets another force area criminals will travel, because they think they are not known and won't get recognised and stopped," he said.

"More officers on the beat does help but we can only do what we can with the resources we get."

In the first three months of the year, the Cross Hills area saw a 31.3 per cent increase on autocrime, a 27.3 per cent increase in violent crime and a 11.1 per cent increase in house burglaries compared to the same period last year.

There was a total of 174 crimes during that time compared to 136 crimes last year - a 27.9 per cent rise.

Bob Young, who had his Mercedes damaged outside his Sutton home, welcomed the move, but said that the most effective form of policing would be closed circuit television cameras on the four roads leading into the village.

"Anything that they can do is obviously to the benefit of the people of Sutton and surrounding areas. However my point of view is that the best way forward is cameras on Holme Lane, Sutton Lane, West Lane and Ellers Road so that police can immediately identify cars that are coming into the village that don't belong to people who live there."

He felt the increase in his council tax bill due to the police precept was not justified in terms of the amount of policing the village received.

Vice-chairman of Glusburn Parish Council Jenny Wood also cautiously welcomed the initiative. "We have been concerned about the reduction of police manpower in the area for some time, and we will be pleased that something extra is being done. But it is alright reducing it as long as they can maintain it.

"The police in this area are hard pushed and they do what they can. We appreciate what they do for the village but they just need more manpower at the end of the day."

Alan Perrow, the chairman of Craven Ratepayers Action Group, added: "We are very pleased to see any increased initiative from the police, which we the public have certainly paid for with the doubling of rates in the last two years. We hope it will accelerate and extend to other areas."