RURAL crime needs to be taken seriously. It’s big business for some criminals; according to NFU Mutual more than £1.2m worth of livestock was stolen in the North-East and North Yorkshire in 2014 - and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The traumatic experience of brave farmer Lisa Robinson shows just how determined thieves can be. When she challenged two people who appeared to be rounding up her sheep on her land at Picton, she was attacked.

It’s a particularly brutal and shocking crime, but shows what our rural police forces are dealing with.

The Government needs to take rural crime as seriously as any other. People’s experience of crime or poverty isn’t lessened by living in countryside.

The National Rural Crime Network has commissioned a study with academics at Plymouth University that says the Government needs to take a long, hard look at the criteria for police funding, which it says is “inherently unfair” on rural forces.

It found the Government appears to favour using the number of crimes recorded in an area as basis for allocating money, meaning funding is disproportionately favouring areas with high volume crimes such as shoplifting.

Chair of rural crime network, police commissioner Julia Mulligan likened it to: “allocating NHS money on the basis of the number of people in an area with a cough and cold. The more people, the more coughs and colds.”

The Home Office is reviewing how it allocates funding to police forces – let’s hope it provides rural communities with the deal they deserve.