Vale district is safest place to live in Thames Valley

1:35pm Tuesday 6th May 2008

PEOPLE in the Vale district are the safest in the Thames Valley, police figures have revealed.

New statistics released show the Vale of White Horse district has the lowest crime figures in Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

And the total number of crimes reported in the district was down by almost 500 between April 2007 and March 2008 - the lowest since 2005.

Inspector Phil Littlechild said his 100 officers and 29 Police Community Support Officers were pleased with the news.

He said: "We are most proud of these figures, but this isn't just down to the police force. All the partners have been working together. The best results are the burglary and auto crime results. There are 200 fewer vehicles being broken into and that's 200 fewer victims in the Vale of White Horse since 2005."

The statistics show for every 1000 households in the Vale district, there was an average of 27 crimes reported between April 2007 and March 2008 - far fewer than in Oxford, which averaged 70, and 94 in Reading - the least safe place to live in the region last year.

Criminal damage still makes up a third of all crime reported. One thousand four hundred and 35 incidents were logged last year - eight per cent fewer than the year before.

Insp Littlechild said: "We are working hard to reduce criminal damage and with the roll-out of Neighbourhood Policing and the Police Community Support Officers on the streets, we have seen a substantial decrease. Our detection rate is also the best in the force. For every crime we solve one in three crimes. The Vale is now the safest place in the Thames Valley."

Burglary is down 23 per cent and car theft 22 per cent whilst vehicle interference is down 65 per cent. The number of items stolen from inside a vehicle is down by 31 per cent.

The same number of bicycles were stolen last year as the year before.

The British Crime Survey divides crimes into ten categories most worried about by the public. These include domestic burglaries, car crime, criminal damage and domestic violence.

A total of 3,174 crimes were reported in the Vale last year.