Shipley would have more front-line police officers as a result of Bradford's law enforcement shake-up, a community forum was told last night.

And Shipley's MP Chris Leslie believes fears about the implications of the Bradford Police Review are being blown out of proportion.

At the Shipley and Baildon Police Community Forum meeting last night, David Senior, the town's Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate, said there was wide concern a number of the area's beat managers could be lost.

"Local beat officers are valued by the communities they have built up relationships with, and people don't want to see that affected,'' he added.

Councillor Mark Blackburn (Lab, Shipley East) said the value of beat managers had been demonstrated in Windhill where vandalism had increased when its officer had been temporarily moved out of the area to pursue other duties.

But Chief Superintendent Stuart Hyde, Eccleshill's divisional commander, said more officers would be based at Shipley following the shake-up, with a 24-hour service delivered from the station.

Details of where individual officers would be based had yet to be finalised but it was very likely that a new divisional "problem oriented policing'' team - probably based at Bingley - would have a connection to an enlarged beat area.

Before the meeting Shipley MP Chris Leslie said: "I've been in constant discussions with Chief Superintendent Derek Bonnard at Keighley.

"And I think this is starting to get blown out of proportion, given that nothing final's been decided yet, and that the police are committed to no reductions at all in the number of officers on the front line."