The security operation lasted several hours

A hoax device left at the home of the chairman of a district policing partnership in County Tyrone was designed to intimidate, the police have said.

SDLP councillor Thomas McBride found a box outside the front door of his home at Lisnaragh Road, Plumbridge, on Sunday morning.

An Army bomb disposal team was flown in to investigate and the device was later declared an elaborate hoax.

It is the latest in a series of incidents at the homes of members of district policing partnerships (DPPs) in Northern Ireland.

Mr McBride, a Strabane councillor and chairman of the local DPP, said such attacks would not diminish their work.

"There is a concerted effort to intimidate and threaten those involved in moving policing forward on the DPPs," he said in a statement.

Thomas McBride has said he will not be intimidated

"It is also telling that after six months of the DPPs being established there are those who feel so threatened by the good work being progressed that they will go to terrible lengths to stop it.

"Those who took decisions to go on to the local DPPs did not do so lightly... and (they) will not be intimidated, threatened or prevented from continuing that work."

Acting Assistant Chief Constable Stuart Tosh condemned those responsible for the incident and said the hoax had been "clearly designed to intimidate".

He called on the entire community to back those who are "trying to fulfil their civic duty" by serving on the boards.

Last week, independent Fermanagh DPP member Cathal O'Dolan resigned after he received threats from dissident republicans.

On Friday, chairman of Cookstown DPP, the SDLP's Patsy McGlone, said threats had been made against its members.

He said the police told them that intelligence had indicated mainstream republicans, "aligned to the Provisional IRA intended to intimidate nationalist members on the partnership".

However, former Sinn Fein Mid-Ulster assembly member Francie Molloy denied claims that republicans were to blame.

Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness also dismissed the claims and said members of his party would not be involved in such intimidation.

A Policing Board spokesperson said they would unreservedly condemn threats made to any DPP member.

Death threats

On Thursday, chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board Professor Desmond Rea said a number of death threats had been made against members of the DPP and the Policing Board in recent months.

Last month, bullets were sent to the Londonderry home of Denis Bradley, the deputy chairman of Northern Ireland's Policing Board.

Police believe dissident republicans were also behind that threat and linked it with a similar package sent to the home of Marion Quinn, a member of the district policing partnership in Derry.

Last month, a hoax device was placed under her daughter's car.

District policing partnerships were set up across Northern Ireland under reforms initiated by a commission headed by former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten and implemented by the government.

Councillors and members of the local community sit on the boards and work alongside the Police Service of Northern Ireland's 29 district command units in trying to meet local community policing needs.

The Northern Ireland Policing Board handles some of the most sensitive issues facing policing and holds PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde and his senior officers to account.

Former assembly members and independent nominees serve on the board whose headquarters are in Belfast.

Sinn Fein has boycotted the new structures, insisting the government's policing reforms need to go further if they are ever going to participate.