POLICE in Earby are joining forces with residents for a crackdown and urban and rural crime.

A new Neighbourhood Watch scheme is being introduced to help protect homeowners in the town, while a Farm Watch scheme will be set up to help protect some of the more isolated properties.

The two new projects were discussed at a recent public meeting at the community centre, which was organised by local community beat managers PCs Brian Pepper and Fiona Barlow.

There have been regular spates of vandalism and thefts in the town centre and at some more remote locations during the last few years, which led to residents calling for more police on the streets and CCTV.

About 100 concerned people attended the meeting, during which there was a lot of interest in both schemes.

Community beat manager, PC Fiona Barlow said: "While the police have a key role to play in tackling crime and disorder, we can't do it all on our own. We need to work together to help prevent and detect crime and traditional schemes like Neighbourhood Watch and new ones like our own Farm Watch can be a great help."

"We're delighted that so many local people are keen to work in partnership with us to crack crime and we're looking forward to working with local residents on these two new initiatives. I am confident that by combining our local knowledge and resources we can make a real difference to local crime levels in both town and country." Earby ward councillor Morris Horsfield, who attended the meeting, hoped the schemes would be successful in reducing the amount of crime in the town. He said: "Quite a lot of the people there were farmers who very supportive of the Farm Watch scheme.

"Small things like vandalism happen everywhere but when they are happening on your street they are serious to you. The watch schemes will be good if the police can get them off the ground.

"I think they will be well supported and I will be backing them all the way. We could also do with CCTV cameras to tie in with it."

Fellow councillor Rosemary Carroll, said: "It is a very good idea. We used to have a neighbourhood watch scheme in Earby, quite a lot of years ago but it petered out.

"Anything that prevents or alleviates crime in the town is worthwhile. It's just a case of making people more aware of what is going on near their homes and getting them to look after each other."