Police put in picture on rural workers

The National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) ran the event called Gamekeeping and the Law, at the Welbeck Estate, near Worksop.

The idea for the course arose from a meeting between the NGO and the Association of Chief Police Officers, and describes in detail what gamekeepers do, and looks at the legality of activities such as trapping, shooting and poaching, as well as discussing the issue of rural crime in general.

NGO chairman Lindsay Waddell said: “We are doing this for gamekeeping and for the whole rural community.

“The police want to do their best, but with staff cutbacks and many officers having no background in the countryside there have been bad misunderstandings in the recent past and sometimes wrongful arrests.

”The obvious thing is to explain to the police what gamekeepers do, what the law says and how we can help each other.

“This is an expensive initiative for the NGO to undertake but what could be more important than reducing rural crime and securing support from the police for gamekeeping and the shooting community?”

Pc Jason Crofts, who is based at Worksop Police Station, said: “Many of us police large and predominantly rural areas, so the issues that this course will explore are relevant to the work that many of us do.

”Gamekeepers can provide valuable information about the activity that goes on in some of the more remote parts of our community, both in terms of intelligence and advice, and that’s what we hope to take away from this course.”

Officers from north Nottinghamshire were joined by colleagues from the Derbyshire and Humberside forces, as well as from the British Transport Police.