RESIDENTS claim they desperately need a bobby on the beat to keep crime under control in their village.

But Lancashire police said today that during the whole of last year only 32 crimes were reported to them in the village of Brindle and it needed no more policing than it already has.

The parish is split between the police divisions of Chorley and Leyland.

Part of the village is patrolled by PC Neil Gardner but he also has duties at Chorley.

Chair of Brindle Parish Council Joan Croasdale has been leading the fight for better police cover for many months and this week attended the police and community forum in Chorley to put their case.

"You hear about urban crime but a lot of rural crime goes unreported," she said. "Neil Gardner is excellent but with the amount of crime we have we need him all the time."

Crimes in the village discussed at their meetings include stolen cars which have been dumped at Denham Quarry, motorway construction vehicles using roads with weight restrictions and problems with people taking drugs.

"I am a great believer in the old way they used to do it when the policeman lived within the village," Mrs Croasdale added. "The council is stubbornly pursuing this."

Chief Inspector Neil Walsh, at Chorley, said: "The number of crimes in our part of the Brindle Parish last year was 32, that's about three a month.

"They want the same amount of police officers to patrol Brindle as patrol urban areas but we have to keep this in context."

Superintendent Mike ffelan, of Leyland, added: "Chorley do provide a beat officer for the area but in South Ribble we don't have beat officers except for ten per cent of the borough.

"At the present time we feel we are not able to provide the service for Brindle."

He added: "We would like to feel we do provide an effective response and patrol service which operates from Bamber Bridge."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.