POLICE covering the Frome Vale area are winning their fight against crime.

Figures for 2003-04 for the area, which covers Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Westerleigh and Cotswold Edge, show offences have been dramatically reduced and detection rates are higher.

Residents, who attended Frome Vale Area Forum last Thursday, were told one of the biggest successes was the fall in house burglaries, down from 247 to 159 - a reduction of 36 per cent. Vehicle crime was cut by 14 per cent, from 535 to 459, although robbery increased by five percent.

Insp Keith Farrow, sector inspector for Chipping Sodbury, said: "We set ourselves targets at the end of last year and we have exceeded these targets. In every category policing in this area has exceeded the policing in every other area of South Gloucestershire by a considerable way. Although robbery has shown an increase, it is only one extra person in the whole area that has been affected."

But Insp Farrow emphasised the only way to combat crime was to make it difficult to resell stolen goods by marking them.

He said: "People are less likely to steal property, if they know it has been marked, because they won't be able to get rid of it. Make it clear that your property has been marked. This can be done with a UV marker, engraver or permanent marker.

"When we catch people and we find stolen property we can't charge the offender unless we can prove where the property came from. If it is marked, we can return it to the owner."

Cllr Sue Hope, who was not present, passed on her concern there had been an increase in burglaries in the Cotswold Edge area. But Insp Farrow said this was not the case.

He said: "There has been no rise in burglaries. While I acknowledge there have been a few incidents, notably in the Hawkesbury area, in the year to April, 2004, dwelling burglaries in that ward were down 46 per cent on the previous year, from 39 to 21. Violent crime was down 50 per cent from 16 offences to eight - one of few areas to show a fall in this category.

"Robberies were down 100 per cent from two to zero and total crime was down ten per cent from 210 offences to 188. Their area is an incredibly safe place to live and they should not fear crime."

Targets for crime detection in the next year have been set and include reducing robbery by 18 per cent.

Insp Farrow said: "It is very small to what we set in the last year but, if we achieve these targets, it will help us to reduce crime further."

One dramatic figure revealed that one person in the area had been caught with 46,338 ecstasy tablets.

Insp Farrow said: "It just shows how many tablets one person can have and the scale of what people are capable of."