HURRAH for the "full circle" which, we are told, police philosophy has turned of late, reversing the previously-prevailing doctrine that took crime-deterring bobbies off the beat so that they could respond instead in firefighter-fashion to incidents once they had happened.

Thanks to this U-turn East Lancashire is to get 35 new police officers on community beats -- along with another restoration of commonsense coppering... that of keeping these officers tied to their patches for what Chief Superintendent Dave Mallaby, head of the force's eastern division, promises will be a "significant period of time."

Quite right, too, for getting officers out of their Vauxhall Astras and into the community would be of little use if continual chop and change prevented them from becoming familiar figures.

They need to become such a part of the community themselves that they not only prevent crime and fear of it by their very presence, but also are known by name by everyone in the areas they serve -- to the extent that as well as being on the receiving end of calls for help, they also receive help and information from the public as confidence in them grows.

Wasn't that how it used to be before putting officers in cars cut them off from the community?

And wasn't there much less crime when neighbourhoods had bobbies on the beat round the clock?

And Chief Superintendent Mallaby's idea of the new breed of beat bobbies having mobile phones so they can be quickly contacted by the public would be a marvellous way of enhancing that benefit.

But if there is one cavil that crime-cowed citizens might have about the return of good, old-fashioned policing, surely, it is the 19 per cent rise in the police element of their council tax. After all, it has rocketed to such an extent that most pensioners have had their increase this year wiped out, as have workers getting pay rises of much smaller percentages.

Yes, I know householders are not being asked for a fortune when it comes to the 27p-a-week extra 'police tax,' they are having to pay, but why are they being asked at all?

The extra revenue is bringing in another £2million to pay for 80 new community beat managers across Lancashire -- of which East Lancashire is getting its 35.

But, darn it, the police collected a whopping £7.6million last year from speeding fines.

Why couldn't some or all of that windfall have been spent on creating more beat bobbies instead of it being ploughed into yet more speed cameras, of which Lancashire has more than enough already?

When the return of commonsense policing is met by commonsense financing of it, we will at last be getting somewhere.