EARBY could have its new police office by early spring 2001.

That was the good news delivered to Earby Parish Council by Insp Richard Morgan, the officer now responsible for the Colne and West Craven areas.

He attended the latest meeting of the parish council, accompanied by Sgt Peter Henderson, who is based at Barnoldswick Police Station and in charge of the day-to-day policing of West Craven.

The two officers answered questions on a range of policing issues, including the new office. Planning permission is already in place to convert a former chemist's shop on Victoria Road and the work is expected to start soon.

Insp Morgan explained that the new office - already nicknamed "the cop shop" by local people - would run on a surgery-type basis.

It would be staffed part-time by a civilian worker to keep uniformed officers free for other duties, and open at specified times through the week. At other times it would be used as a base by the officers patrolling the Earby area.

Sgt Henderson added that the new facility would most likely be open on a couple of afternoons in the week, one mid-week evening, and at some point in the weekend, probably Saturday morning. Local people would be able to call in with problems or inquiries and make appointments to talk to their local officers there about specific issues.

Parish councillors welcomed the news, but Coun Chris Tennant told the officers: "I feel we should reiterate that what people in Earby still want most is a bobby on the beat in the evenings."

Insp Morgan said there were valid arguments for "bobbies on the beat", but it wasn't always the best use of police resources. He pointed out that if the police were alerted to a crime at one end of Earby and the officer on patrol was at the other end, he needed to get to the scene quickly and the best way was in a patrol car.

Another issue raised was the question of policing processions and other events like galas. Parish council chairman Coun Vic Marsh said he had read the police would no longer supervise such events, or would charge the organisers.

Insp Morgan explained that the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) had been forced to re-examine how police resources were used, and question some of the roles traditionally assigned to them. However, the police weren't simply withdrawing their services, but would look closely at each event to see if it merited a police presence. Until that new system was in place, it would effectively be "business as usual" at local level.

"There will be more onus on event organisers to ensure that their event is safe and well-stewarded," he said. "We will always advise and help, but we won't always automatically take it on ourselves as we might have in the past. We have to ask if it's a right and proper use of resources to police privately organised and held events at the ratepayers' expense?"