FELIXSTOWE is a safer place today, according to the latest crime figures.Overall crime in the town has decreased by nine per cent, house burglaries have been halved since last year and violent crime is also down but there has been a slight increase in criminal damage.

FELIXSTOWE is a safer place today than it was a year ago, according to the latest crime figures.

Overall crime in the town has decreased by nine per cent, house burglaries have been halved since last year and violent crime is also down, but there has been a slight increase in criminal damage.

A back to basics approach to beating crime including putting more bobbies on the beat, increasing support from a patrolling helicopter and intelligence-led policing has helped lower crime in the seaside town.

Felixstowe police commander Insp Andy Bushell said: "Any reduction in the crime rate is good for the community of Felixstowe.

"I think it's going the right way, I'm trying to make Felixstowe a safe place to live and work and go some way towards making Suffolk the safest county in Britain."

At a police forum in the town's leisure centre, Insp Bushell revealed that arrests were up six pc and four pc more crimes were being solved compared to last year.

He also said that Felixstowe had one of the lowest crime rates in Suffolk as there were 5.2 crimes per 1,000 people in the town, whereas the highest in the county was Ipswich with 37, although Leiston came out best with just five.

House burglaries have nearly been halved from 79 last year to 42 this year in the resort.

There has been a slight decrease in violent crime from 203 reported incidents last year to 187 this year and 78 pc of those have been detected and dealt with by the police.

Insp Bushell said that a third of those violent crimes were domestic and happened in the home and a third do not include injuries, just threats. Also less than four pc of those crimes involved serious injury.