A rural community today admitted it had lost faith in the police, branding its service "appalling".

Angry councillors from Haddenham, near Thame, have blasted Thames Valley Police's poor response after 92-year-old Nellie Lanchbury's home was set on fire by arsonists.

Nellie believes she only escaped when the thatch on her cottage in Townside was set ablaze thanks to a Good Samaritan who alerted her. She does not think the police will catch those responsible.

The attackers were branded "sick scum" by Haddenham parish councillor Michael Whitney.

In a separate incident, vandals smashed a CCTV camera and windows in the village hall. A reward of 250 has been put up by the council for information leading to a conviction for the damage. And parish councillors are demanding meetings with police to sort out village problems.

Mr Whitney said: "All my life I have been pro-police but not now. There is a level of crime at which they seem to shrug their shoulders.

"The level of policing here is appalling. The response is nil or at best very unenthusiastic.

"Like so many people in this country, we have lost faith in the police."

He said the village hall incident was bad, but the arson was dreadful.

"A passer-by luckily saw the blaze. But only sick scum would do this.''

Councillor Angela Hart said the CCTV system at the village hall had cost 10,000. She added: "The police must act to catch those responsible. We pay the police 120,000 a year from this village through our council tax, and we get next to nothing in return." Supt David McBirney, area commander of the Aylesbury division, said he understood the crime problems in villages but stressed that Haddenham and surrounding villages were safe places to live.

He pledged: "I really care about the policing of our rural districts and will continually strive to make our policing more visible, as responsive as possible and as effective as possible."

Nick Way, chief political advisor of the Country Landowners Association, said: "If the police cannot respond quickly to calls or protect people or property, those in isolated rural communities will have no confidence in their existence.

"Neighbourhood watch schemes and CCTV help, but rural crime will not be reduced so long as police response times fall behind the criminal. "The situation in the countryside will only improve when rural areas are given the resources they need for policing."

A recent report by the Countryside Alliance highlighted that certain crimes are increasing faster in the countryside than elsewhere. Car crime jumped by 24 per cent in rural areas last year, compared with just four per cent in urban areas.