North Yorkshire Police plan new hubs to cut rural response times

Residents in rural areas have raised concerns about a lack of visible policing

New police hubs could be introduced in more rural areas in North Yorkshire in order to improve response times, according to a senior officer.

Last year the force said it averaged 12 minutes in rural locations for immediate incidents and just over eight minutes in urban areas.

Ch Supt Catherine Clarke said the force "should be responding as equally as we can across the county".

It comes after concerns from people in rural areas about a lack of officers.

Speaking at a council meeting, Ch Supt Clarke said the force was examining a vast bank of data as part of an ongoing project to understand its response times to different types of incidents.

She said new hubs were being created and staff moved around so "we can better respond".

Cliffe and North Duffield division councillor Karl Arthur and Helmsley and Sinnington councillor George Jabbour both said residents had raised concerns over "a lack of visible policing", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

There has also been criticism of centralised police services, including claims that a lack of officers in some parts of the county is exacerbated by them having to travel long distances to custody suites in places such as Harrogate and York when they arrest someone.

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In terms of new hubs, the meeting was told that currently in the Ryedale area officers operated out of a base in Malton but that the force was looking to secure another to help "reach those hard to get to communities" were

Ch Supt Clark said: "I've taken over local policing and am very interested in understanding equity of response across the force.

"Understanding some of the geographical challenges that are the beautiful county of North Yorkshire, but that we should be responding as equally as we can across the county."