EVERY time ordinary people are asked what they want from their local police, they say the same thing: more bobbies on the beat.

Police commanders in Clifton, York, have listened. Following a recent wave of car crime which saw 90 cars vandalised in only one night by hooded yobs, they are to bring back the beat bobby.

A "dedicated officer" is how Inspector Richard Crinnion, the neighbourhood policing chief for central York, described the role. But the principle is the same.

Police in the modern age often resist a return to the Dixon Of Dock Green-style beat policeman.

Many believe that modern methods, such as intelligence-led policing and information gathering, are needed to tackle modern criminals.

But there was nothing particularly modern about the methods of the yobs who vandalised those 90 cars.

If there had been a beat bobby on patrol that night, whoever was responsible would surely have been caught or scared-off long before the tally of damaged vehicles rose so high.

The Clifton bobby may well be supported by a team of police Community Support Officers. And police are also considering a suggestion by local councillor David Scott to transform part of the former Shipton Street School into a part-time police office, so the Clifton beat bobby has a base in the community.

It is a back-to-basics approach that will be watched with interest by residents across York.

It may not, in itself, provide the answer to all of Clifton's crime problems.

But what's the betting that petty crime will fall - and that residents will feel safer?

If it works in Clifton, it may not be long before calls grow for beat bobbies to be introduced elsewhere in York.