Crime in Oswestry has fallen over the past year with the number of burglaries down by more than half, new figures showed today.

The town, which once had a reputation for night-time crime and disorder, is now one of the top performing police areas for crime reduction, officers say.

The greatest drop has been in break-ins of people’s homes. Figures show there were just 52 burglaries of houses in and around Oswestry in the last 12 months – a drop of 50.2 per cent.

Inspector Jim Stafford, the area’s top policeman, said he was pleased with the figures and said part of the success was down to targeting criminals.

The town, which once had a reputation for night-time crime and disorder, is now one of the top performing police areas for crime reduction, officers say.

Speaking in the wake of the deaths of Hugh, Sue and Frankie McFall, Inspector Stafford said that it was easy to overlook the everyday crime figures.

He said: “They show that Oswestry is a safe place in which to live. There have been individual tragedies in the area which have perhaps given Oswestry an unfortunate reputation.”

He said Oswestry was doing very well in comparison to other areas of Shropshire in fighting crime.

Overall crime in the Oswestry area was down by 26.6 per cent with the biggest success – the reduction of burglaries.

Non-dwelling burglaries – those from commercial premises or premises such as sheds or garages – were down by 43.3 per cent and theft from vehicles, down 26.3 per cent.

Inspector Stafford said there had also been a drop in incidents of criminal damage, down by 25.9 per cent on the previous 12 months.

He said the only increase had been in the number of assaults, up by 2.8 per cent.

“This is a very small increase with some other areas of the division seeing larger increases. Oswestry does have a busy night-time economy and this unfortunately brings with it the type of incident associated with alcohol,” he said.

“Targeting criminals has been part of the success.”

Work is now under way on a 16-week project to improve facilities at Oswestry’s police station, which he described as a “significant” investment in the town.

By Sue Austin