IT’S sad that police are having to set up the equivalent of a Neighbourhood Watch scheme in the rural hamlets between Darwen and Bolton – but hardly surprising.

It’s a long, long time since people living in the countryside have had any reason to think they are somehow immune from increasing numbers of people who live by stealing from others.

Maybe if you live in some parts of deepest west Wales or the north of Scotland a couple of hours drive from the nearest motorway you might still feel you don’t have to secure all your possessions and lock your backdoor every night.

But with motorways and the ability to scrutinise quite isolated areas on the internet through Google Earth crooks can now ‘case’ money-making opportunities with ease.

And if you live in a lavishly appointed, isolated barn conversion up an unmade track it’s likely to be an easier target for burglars than the average suburban mansion complete with CCTV cameras, electric gates and an intercom entry system.

In an age too when metal thieves are bold enough to rip out cables running from railway stations and even Royal Blackburn Hospital, farmers who leave enormous lumps of machinery lying in open fields where sometimes there aren’t even any gates are just asking for trouble.

In the same way as townies wouldn’t dream of leaving cars in the drive with the keys in the ignition the time has come for farmers to put padlocks on the gates of fields containing valuable livestock.

It’s not just professional gangs either – light-fingered folk are everywhere.

Not long ago after a weekend ramble across the Grane near Haslingden I managed to drive out of the public car park without remembering to put my wife’s new walking boots in the back of the car.

We got half way home before realising they had been left outside the front passenger door.

Twenty minutes later we were back at the scene but it was too late. They’d already been half-inched although the thief had been kind enough to leave the socks behind!

The fact is that our country cousins are fortunate enough to enjoy fantastic fresh air, plenty of space and open views.

But in the 21st century they need to be as streetwise as the rest of us when it comes to keeping criminals at bay and pay whatever it costs to police their surroundings too.