ONGAR MP Eric Pickles has warned of growing resentment among villagers regarding the level of policing in their areas.

The concerns about a lack of a visible police presence were raised at a recent meeting Mr Pickles held with parish council clerks and chairmen.

Ongar parish council raised the issue of vandalism at Chipping Ongar primary school and the poor police response time while Stapleford Abbotts parish council said officers were only seen when there was a road accident on the main road through the village.

Lambourne parish council, which covers Abridge, reported a lack of visible police patrols and an increase in vandalism and anti-social behaviour Mr Pickles said: "We know Essex Police is suffering from significant resourcing problems and that recruitment of sufficient new officers is proving difficult.

"The police themselves are not happy with the level of service they provide but if there are only two or three officers on duty and a traffic accident occurs that can take the whole team which is on duty, leaving no officer available to respond to other incidents or to make routine patrols.

"I know several parish councils are investigating the community support officer scheme to see if that would help but for every CSO appointed the parish would need to find about £14,000 a year which is a lot of money for the smaller parishes and in essence means people living in rural areas would be paying twice once through the normal precept to Essex Police and once through the parish council element of their council tax.

"As the council tax in rural areas is already higher than urban areas due to the value of properties then people feel they're already paying for a reasonable level of policing and resent being asked to pay again to fund CSOs."