CRIME is falling in Wilmslow according to the latest police performance statistics.

In the Wilmslow Neighbourhood Police Unit, total reported crime during 2007 fell by 7.6 per cent compared to 2006.

Wilmslow’s Neighbourhood Policing Inspector Luke McDonnell said this had been one of his challenges when he came into the post in March last year.

He said: "The big challenge when I arrived here was to reduce crime and reduce the fear of crime, so people are safer and feel safer. By doing that we improve people’s quality of life and confidence in the police and do that on an ongoing basis."

He added: "The main thing has been ensuring there are the right number of officers on the street and identifying where the problem areas are".

He said ‘significant resources’ had been put into tackling problems at night in Handforth.

"PCSOs have played a huge part in the reduction of crime. They’re fantastic here and I’m quite proud of them," he said.

Of the 2,804 reported incidences during 2007, the greatest volume of offences related to vehicle crime, violent crime and criminal damage.

However the number of "detections" - where an individual is charged, cautioned or reprimanded for an offence - decreased disproportionately to the crime rate, falling 12.22pc during the year.

Insp McDonnell said: "As crime reduces it becomes harder to detect it as you have a smaller pool.

"One of the issues we have in Wilmslow is that we don’t have the same level of local criminals as other areas such as Macclesfield or Crewe.

"Our criminality is more cross border."

He said that initiatives such as Operation Platinum, which targeted cross border crime had led to the reduction.

He added: "The impact in terms of reductions, proves a hypothesis that people are coming from other areas such as Wythenshawe into the area."

Insp McDonnell continued: "There’s also the issue of whether we base performance on detection or a problem-solving basis.

"Communities don’t talk about detection rates but a reduction in crime and feeling safer which is what I judge performance on and the main target is for me to be under target set by the Police Authority."

He also said Wilmslow neighbourhood police unit consistently beat targets for every type or recorded crime during the last nine months.

As a result Cheshire Police Authority set new and stricter targets for Wilmslow NPU in November last year in a bid to continue to drive down the crime rate.

Insp McDonnell added: "This shows there has been a reduction month by month and that we are controlling crime."