Sir – The Tory Police and Crime Commissioner Anthony Stansfeld has recently highlighted the issue of rural crime at the same time as the force he oversees is considering closing the custody suite at St Aldates Police Station, and thus risking a reduction in response rates in the city, despite the recent string of serious crimes.

Figures from the Government (www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/227013/Crime_Aug_2013.pdf) now show that rural areas have crime levels substantially lower than cities such as Oxford, with robbery figures sometimes nine times lower for rural areas than in towns despite the recent reduction in overall crime levels.

I am sympathetic to the problem of the relatively high levels of the theft of machinery in rural areas, and last year, during the PCC elections, I suggested that farm and construction machinery should have at least the same level of security devices as the modern family car.

Investment in motion-sensitive CCTV, where valuable goods and machinery are stored, might also be worth considering on a much wider scale. Moving scarce police resources into the countryside on the off-chance that they might encounter, or even deter, a crime seems difficult to justify if it makes our towns and cities less safe at a time when resources for all public services are stretched.

John Howson, Lib Dem county councillor for St Margaret’s and candidate for crime commissioner role, Oxford