IMAGINE you’re going about your daily business, looking after yourself and your family, and just doing the best you can with what you have.

Now imagine someone comes along and demands that you continue to do exactly the same, but with 25 to 40 per cent less money.

Think you could do it? I’m pretty sure I couldn’t.

Sadly, North Yorkshire Police and every other force in the country is facing this kind of demand, in a country where riots break out over cafes that sell cereal and officers have petrol bombs thrown at them at illegal raves.

Granted, those incidents didn’t take place in North Yorkshire, but just last weekend officers responding to a noise complaint in Harrogate were faced with 100 youths who threw fireworks at them while they broke up an out of hand house party.

I deal with the police a lot when I’m not writing columns. It’s my job to write about both the positive and the negative aspects of the organisation, from lifesaving stories, property marking and detective work, to service complaints and allegations from members of the public.

Like many of you, I respect them and what they do, but I should make it absolutely clear before we go any further, they have had no input or warning about this particular opinion piece – I half expect an email advising me they can fight their own battles once it’s published, but here we go.

People complain that they don’t see a bobby on their street any more. Everyone seems to remember some mythical time when there was an officer perched on every streetlight across the county just waiting to leap into action when they spotted a ruffian doing something untoward.

North Yorkshire has, roughly, 6,000 miles of roads, and just shy of 1,400 frontline officers. That goes up to about 1,600 if we factor in PCSOs - which we absolutely should, because without their work gathering intelligence and contacts in the communities they serve, there would be far fewer successful investigations. Let’s round it up and say that’s an officer for every four miles or so.

Yes, ideally, there’d be a network of officers within waving distance of each other. You wouldn’t be able to walk half a block without one saying “evenin’ all” then bumping into another who cheerily says “mind how you go”. It would be embarrassing. You’d say “’ello, ‘ello, ‘ello” so often it would stop being funny.

The fact is, budget constraints mean you can’t do that, and police have to work smarter. Scaremongers will tell you the force won’t send out to burglaries, but the fact is call handlers have to assess which crimes need immediate assistance – say, a bank is being robbed in the city – and which don’t require flashing blue lights and driving at speed – an empty driveway where a car used to be, for example.

Already, North Yorkshire Police has cut back office staff and is selling off buildings to meet Government demands and save £25.9m by 2018, and they’re sharing resources with neighbouring forces to reduce costs. But that can only go so far before those combined numbers have to fall too.

Sadly, whenever senior officers face the public to take questions, all anyone seems to want to talk about is how it’s unfair that they got a speeding ticket from a clearly marked and stationary police van when they were only going 80mph in a 70mph limit.

“It’s just a money making scheme for the cops”, they’ll cry. “You should be catching real criminals.”

They’re embarrassed to have been caught by a radar gun on a stretch of road they’ve driven countless times before, but the fact remains there’s more at stake here than a fine and points on your licence – keep driving that fast and there’s an increased chance you’ll be involved in a crash which could kill you or someone else.

We should be angry that the police are being hamstrung by budget cuts. Like the NHS, things are looking pretty bleak for them, but they just get on with their jobs, protecting the public for little reward.

If you value the police at all, or even at least the service they provide, this should bother you. We should be upset that forces are losing massive chunks of funding and being told to do the same with less.

Campaigners say we should contact MPs and urge them to fight for fairer funding for the police. PCCs are writing to the Home Secretary urging the same. Whatever you think about the police, it’s important to remember that cuts have consequences. Whether you’re selling off everything you own to keep providing a service, or choosing cheaper store-brand food at the supermarket, there’s only so far a pound can stretch.

Surely, some things are worth a little extra?