FARMERS are joining together to fight crime.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) has welcomed plans by Cleveland Police to launch a Farm Watch scheme.

Farmers are being invited to a meeting in Guisborough tonight to endorse a telephone, ring-round network running from the town, which has 70 farms in its immediate area, across the whole of east Cleveland to the edge the North York Moors.

Neighbourhood Watch liaison officer Joyce Oakden said crime was no worse in east Cleveland than anywhere else, but added: "Farm Watch is all about sharing information, improving communication and community spirit within our more remote and rural areas and, ultimately, cutting crime."

Guisborough farmer John Rider, who will be attending the meeting in Westgate Methodist Hall, said he was saddened by the closure of small, local police stations and said bobbies assigned to the rural beat were replaced with new faces even before they had a chance to get to know the area.

He said: "I have had odd crimes on the farm where people have broken into buildings or vehicles have been stolen or the house has been broken into.

"When people do a runner from a farm it takes so long for the police to get here there is not a lot of point in the end. Sometimes you have got to because you need the crime number for your insurance.

"Certainly, a number of us don't bother to report some crime because of its relative minor nature. You don't get any results so people feel unless you have got an insurance claim it is not worthwhile.

"If someone steals two bales of hay, it is of such small cash value it is not worth the hassle.''

But officially, applauding the initiative, a spokesman for the NFU said: "Farming in urban fringes always provides challenges and as everywhere else in the countryside, there are serious issues of vandalism, burglaries and criminal damage."

Community PC Stuart Bell, of Cleveland Police, said: "Obviously farms have a problem the same as everywhere else. What we want to do is get them all together on a more formal basis, give them direct points of contact with the police and increase liaison between police and farmers."