IN a constant fight against crime and in an attempt to keep a jump ahead of crooks, the police have to come up with new ways to tackle all sorts of fraud.

The latest, launched this week in Otley, is an attempt to cut down on the amount of credit card and cheque fraud. Plastic payment, as convenient as it is, is also subject to fraud - and for struggling retailers who can lose thousands of pounds every year through fake cards and cheques, it is immensely frustrating.

Now, police, working with the town's Townwatch scheme, have come up with the idea of asking everyone who pays with plastic to supply a thumbprint. The print is put on the back of the cheque - or credit card slip - and given up as evidence to police in the event the payment turns out to be fraudulent.

So far some 40 shopkeepers in Otley have backed the scheme - but just how many of them might change their minds the first time a valued customer takes umbrage and stalks out of the shop without making a purchase?

Will retailers display warnings - telling customers what to expect if they attempt to pay with anything but cash? And faced with the choice - of providing a print, or refusing - and so risking being thought of as a fraudster - what are customers going to do? Its going to be an interesting few weeks in Otley.

Meanwhile, is it a coincidence, or is crime on the increase in Otley? Traders and councillors have long asked for security cameras, and now places like Horsforth are to get cameras installed, are criminals hitting Otley as a soft target?

l The new Wharfedale Hospital will be the largest new building to be built in the town for many years. Councillors are busy fighting for the highest quality materials - so that the hospital does not look too out of place next to the listed former workhouse.

Isn't it ironic that here in the 21st century builders struggle to come up with the money to build as important a building as a hospital in the highest quality stone, when 200 years ago, the Victorians managed to build a workhouse using local materials.

But local materials that would end up being stripped from walls, roofs and pathways because they are so valuable.