I WRITE this letter in support of Brian Hinchliffe – Ongoing uncertainty (Keighley News, January 19) – in his attempt to warn the people of Keighley about the possible closure of Keighley police station and subsequent loss of frontline officers.

At times of uncertainty, many acts of stupidity are often classed as a virtue by many non-thinking members of the establishment, the results of which affect the lives of those who are not aware of these acts until it is too late.

Many of us who vote for a representative to act on our behalf in either council or government often find we are voted against behind closed doors.

All readable evidence supports the view that a reduction in police numbers leads to an increase in all levels of criminal activity – not rocket science, that the best deterrent against crime is a police presence; common sense, the opposite of stupidity.

As a local citizen who can stand, see, read and think, my perception of crime in Keighley is it is on the increase, with reports in the Keighley News weekly of arson, assault, robberies, burglaries, grooming, attempted murders. In view of this, are we to conclude we need less police to protect society or move officers nine miles away in Bradford to afford us better protection?

The Tories have slashed police numbers by 17,000 and broken their promise to the British people to protect frontline officers, letting the British people down when the first duty of government is the safety and security of its citizens. This huge loss is significant and could easily lead to other forms of self-protection by those citizens through fear or for retribution.

All statistics can be manipulated to suit those who commission them. When an increase in any crime leaps, we are told it is because more people are coming forward to report said crime. Your belief in such a statement is your affair. I, however, do not.

Left out of the statistics are more than a million violent crimes against the individual, edited out because a victim of a violent crime is capped at five. Any more than that is not officially recorded, meaning the levels of violent crime in England and Wales are 60 per cent higher than official records tell us – refer to the CSEW or crime survey of England and Wales for further information.

We are often told Britain is the fifth richest economy in the world, but at what cost? If we spend little or nothing on our infrastructure, social services, industry, the NHS, our armed forces, our elderly and poor and our police, which country on Earth would not also share that wonderful accolade?

On a personal level, I consider the proposed closure of our, or any other, police station and such savage cuts to our police service as a betrayal of the people of Keighley and the British people as a whole.

I will vote accordingly at the next council and general elections.

PETER CLARKE Moorhouse Lane Oxenhope