VILLAGE councillors are furious after learning their police community support officer may have to patrol his rural beat using public transport.

Hurworth Parish Council is to write to the chief constable of Durham Police and to the local police authority after learning their local PCSO no longer has guaranteed access to a police vehicle.

However, police have given assurances that Hurworth and its neighbouring villages will receive the same level of support.

PCSO John Angus also covers Middleton St George and smaller villages.

His police vehicle has become too old and the force cannot afford to replace it.

At a meeting of Hurworth Parish Council on Monday, members questioned how PCSO Angus was expected to do his job properly if he had to rely on public transport.

Coun Alan Gibson suggested writing to the chief constable John Stoddart.

He added: “When I first came here, there were two police officers living in the village, now they’re saying, ‘why not send someone on the bus?’ “It’s absolutely ludicrous we have a rural beat and the man that’s doing the job is supposed to be using public transport. It’s not adequate policing.”

However, Coun Doris Jones, who represents Middleton St George on the borough council and is chairwoman of the public protection scrutiny committee, felt the situation was not as bad as it sounded – though she did have some concerns.

She said: “PCSOs don’t normally have their own dedicated vehicle anyhow. On the one hand, it might be a good thing if he was getting on the bus as it would give him a chance to talk to people.

“However, we don’t have a good bus service which covers the whole area.

“John’s a good PCSO and the kids know him.

“My concern is we only have one police officer and two PCSOs for an area with a population of 11,500 people.”

Sg Louise Guest, from Darlingon police, said; “John Angus used a car that was at Teesside airport and was used as a deterrent.

However, it reached the end of its working life.

“At the moment, with the financial situation, we haven’t be able to replace it, although that doesn’t mean it won’t be replaced.

When he’s been at work, he’s been able to use a crew bus to get around.”

She added that if an incident occurred and PCSO Angus was unable to get to it, a core police officer would attend.

She said: “People will still be getting the quality of policing, but without the one-to-one service they had with John Angus.”