Police forces are ill-equipped to deal with the rise in rural crime - Sarah Todd

Organised gangs are especially keen on high-tech GPS systems, fitted in most modern tractors, helping themselves to 15 per cent more in 2022 than the year before with a value of £1.8m. The first four months of this year has seen these numbers double.

These countryside criminals are also particularly partial to quad and other all-terrain vehicles, stealing £3m nationally - a 34 per cent rise on the previous year.

Meanwhile, cost of livestock theft rose 8.7 per cent in 2022, totalling an estimated £2.7m.

We’re not talking about the random loss of an odd sheep, with claims reported regularly involving over 50 animals being taken in a single raid.

To go off on a tangent, some residents of a nearby village recently raised concerns about drones flying over their houses; probably more from a noise point of view than anything. They were told not to worry, that it was more than likely an estate agent getting some shots of a property about to be listed for sale.

On reflection, they were right to flag this aerial assault on their privacy, as the NFU report has also revealed that some rural thieves are using drones to suss farms out. Most householders won’t have a big bucks tractor on their back lawn, but like all things there will be a filtering down of technology so it isn’t beyond the realms of possibility that an everyday common-or-garden thief could soon be starting to use drones (if they’re not already).

It was interesting to watch last week’s Channel 5 documentary about the 17-day manhunt for Barry Prudom. As a nine year-old back in the summer of 1982 it all seemed very exciting; especially getting sent home early from school and the police knocking on doors to check farm buildings.

But what the most noticeable contrast was, looking back 40 years on, was the huge numbers of police officers. Where are they now? There were 4,000 - many of them armed - in the search for Prudom, who had callously killed two police officers and a farmer. Could such numbers be drummed up in 2023? It was also interesting to hear of officers on “routine patrol” when they encountered him. Now they all seem to be either sat in speed detection vans or behind desks.

The exception to this is PC Harrison Burns in the long-running radio series The Archers. Yes, it’s a fair cop, the daily dramas of life in the fictional rural village of Ambridge is something of an addiction. From missing bunting to coercive controlling husbands PC Burns has it covered. He’s a very real presence in the village; part of the fabric of everyday life. Recently he’s become interested in nature as a form of stress relief and even applied for a transfer to the rural crime unit. Be careful Harrison, the upward trend of farm crimes might mean you’re risking jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

Images on the news this week of homeless people on our capital’s Oxford Street have been difficult to erase.

It knocked the stuffing out of this correspondent to see shop delivery workers stepping over the rows of sleeping bags; as if they were nothing more than rubbish on the floor. So poignantly illustrating the stark contrast between those that have - who shop in these flagship stores with their bright colours and astronomical price tags - to those that have nothing. Apologies for finishing where we started, with another survey, but figures released by the London Assembly show the number of people sleeping rough in the city between April to June 2023 has increased by nine per cent, to 3,272 individuals, compared to the same period last year.

Surely it’s a national disgrace that so many of those who were found shelter during the pandemic are back on the streets.

A lot of them are failed asylum seekers and this must give food for thought to those who say we should welcome more migrants with open arms. Get real; they aren’t all coming over here and living happily ever after in cottages with roses around the door. The BBC interviewed a local chap living in his car; working but unable to afford rent. He was no down-and-out, just a normal bloke. As a country, we need to get our priorities right.