Why the cost of rural crime for farmers is much more than just financial: The Yorkshire Post says

The startling finding that many farmers are so concerned about the risk of their properties and land being targeted by criminals they feel they can no longer leave their grounds unoccupied to attend local agricultural shows brings home the impact of rural crime in a way that simple statistics cannot.

Organised criminals have been targeting livestock on Yorkshire farms. Picture: Tony Johnson/Yorkshire Post

But the figures themselves are alarming enough. According to the 2019 Rural Crime Report by insurer NFU Mutual, rural crime across Yorkshire’s countryside cost nearly £4m last year, with an 80 per cent rise in North Yorkshire alone in 2018.

As Matthew Gummerson, the NFU Mutual’s agent in Honley, aptly puts it, the costs go beyond the financial - the intangible but nevertheless very real feeling of being at risk, and altering the way you live and work as a result, has deep consequences and exacerbates the problems of rural isolation for many farmers who already work alone all day.

300 known crime gangs targeting Yorkshire's countryside

More police officers are needed in rural communities.

With new Prime Minister Boris Johnson promising to recruit 20,000 new police officers in the next three years to keep communities safer, it is vital that rural areas get their fair share of that resource.