FARMERS are being enlisted in the fight against crime in Darlington’s rural areas.

Police and community groups are uniting to relaunch the Farmwatch scheme, in which people living in rural areas are encouraged to take an active role in tackling crime by watching out for suspicious activity and making sure all property is kept secure.

Police officers are visiting dozens of farms across the borough and handing out SmartWater kits so machinery can be marked.

If a marked item is stolen and recovered by police, it can be more easily traced and returned to its owner.

PC Julian Brown said he hoped Farmwatch would be embraced by the rural communities.

“We want to introduce ourselves and reinforce existing relationships, “ he said. “We want them to know we don’t forget the rural areas and that we are there if they need us.

“SmartWater will make our job easier in reducing the amount of crime being reported.

“We would rather discourage a crime from happening in the first place than detecting one, though we are, of course, happy to detect as well.”

A special police and communities together (Pact) will be established to allow farmers to raise concerns with police without attending meetings.

The meetings have been a success in other areas of the borough. They give the public a chance to scrutinise police response to given targets.

“Farmers are busy people, often working unsociable hours, so a meeting wouldn’t work,” said PC Brown.

“What we want to do is tell us what their problems are, and we can then update our website accordingly so they can check up on how we are dealing with them.”

The new Farmwatch is incorporating other groups, including Countryside Crime Watch, founded by Brian Pavey.

Mr Pavey said: “By working as a team we can beat the thieves and vagabonds working on the land.”

Mr Pavey, who patrols the borough on a regular basis, said the problems most often encountered were poaching and badger baiting.

“I go out with a police officer and we liaise with other groups about country crime. We are all planning to link in with North Yorkshire police in the summer to carry out covert operations,” he said.

For more information, call rural beat officers PC Brown or PC Chris Horner through the police non-emergency number 0345-6060-365.

PICTURED: PC Julian Brown marks a lawnmower with Smart-Water at Acorn Dairy in Archdeacon Newton, on the outskirts of Darlington.

The owner is Graham Tweddle (left), whose family have farmed there for generations.

Looking on is Farmwatch volunteer Val Whitby, who will travel around the district helping PC Brown to mark machinery with the chemical fluid, which provides unique identification.