Knutsford may soon follow the example of Northwich, where closed circuit TV cameras have helped to cut the crime rate.

This is all well and good.

My concern is that these hi-tech measures may not so much deter the criminals, as divert them to easier targets remote from the high streets.

Recent raids on village post offices suggest that this is already happening.

The post-mistress at Styal has been doubly penalised.

She has not only lost much of her business because the second runway has led to the closure of Altrincham Road. She has also, and more alarmingly, been robbed twice at gunpoint.

She is valiantly staying in business, and has even expanded it - opening a country and western store for the line-dancing crowd.

She deserves both success and security.

It ought to be a cardinal principal, in our policing as much as in our planning, that no special favours be given to the big business rather than the small ones.

Indeed, if there is to be preferential treatment, it should go to the village shops and post offices.

They are much more at risk, and provide an irreplaceable service to the local community, especially the elderly and disabled.

Memo to the Chief Constable: It is the 'little people' who need your help.

The big battalions will always be better placed to look after themselves.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.