THE great New Earswick crime-busting experiment did not merely fail, it flopped spectacularly. Crime went up. Fear of crime went up. No wonder it was abandoned months early.

Today the author of a report into the flop described the scheme as "well-intentioned". It was also half-baked.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has undertaken much pioneering social research which has helped to improve the lives of countless people. But the New Earswick initiative was never going to work.

The idea was to improve residents' sense of security by paying for an extra police presence. But what villagers got was far removed from the much-yearned for "bobby on the beat".

The foundation's £25,000 a year only bought an extra 24 hours a week of policing. That works out at a daily average of three hours 25 minutes. Those patrols were in the day only, giving the vandals the all-clear at night.

The community officer could not be contacted directly, only via Fulford Police Station in York, which is odd in the age of the mobile phone.

Meanwhile, villagers hoping to get to know their new officer were disappointed. Three different people held the post in its 28-month existence. And they kept being called out of New Earswick to emergencies elsewhere.

This community officer was no more an old-style village beat bobby than Inspector Morse is a real detective. That undermines the foundation's claim today that the failed experiment "carries important lessons for other communities that want to see more bobbies on the beat".

The report is on firmer ground when it highlights the gap between perceived and real crime levels. But it is hardly surprising that residents' fear of crime increases when a quiet North Yorkshire village suddenly boasts extra police hours, towering CCTV cameras and private security patrols.

Updated: 10:55 Thursday, October 09, 2003