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CRIME in Didcot is up two per cent - the only town in south Oxfordshire to show an increase - and most of the increase is down to criminal damage.

Also up were the numbers of cases of domestic violence, assault and thefts.

But the good news is that burglaries were down 28 per cent, thefts from vehicles were down by half and woundings were also slightly down.

The figures were given by local area commander, Superintendent Andy Murray.

He said the Didcot figures showed an extra 30 crimes this year taking the figure to 1,101 crimes, and he said they were mainly due to criminal damage.

He said that overall figures in south Oxfordshire showed that crime is down by 11 per cent.

Supt Murray said: "South Oxfordshire is one of the safest places in the country to live and our success shows that it is now even safer." He said detection rates were up - by they still leave three out of four crimes unsolved. "We are working to improve on those figures" he said.

He was particularly pleased that burglary was down by 18 per cent from 428 houses burgled last year to 352 this year.

He said: "That is still too many and we will be concentrating on getting those figures even lower."

Supt Murray said that the increasing number of police personnel and Police Community Support Officers on the streets, especially at weekends, had helped keep public order offences down. He said: "This is fundamental to our aim of improving our service to the public.

"And even though the Home Office has set us targets for next year based on tackling more serious crimes, we will still be concentrating as well on the crimes that worry local people most like anti-social behaviour.

Dorothy Brown, South Oxfordshire District Council cabinet member for community safety, said: "We have been working very closely with the police and other partners over the last year and are pleased to see the results this is having. The council is continuing to invest in neighbourhood action groups, CCTV cameras and police community support officers which will help deliver our community safety strategy over the next three years."

Didcot's crimes rose from 1,071 in 2006/7 to 1,101 in 2007/8 an increase of 2.8 per cent.

Wallingford's crime went from 1,141 to 930 last year, a drop of 18.5 per cent.

Henley and Thame's figures showed an 18.5 per cent and a 14.8 per cent drop respectively.

1:31pm Tuesday 6th May 2008

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