A CRIME-fighting partnership has achieved one of the region's most dramatic falls in burglaries in a former mining community.

Over the past year, house burglaries fell by more than 30 per cent in the Easington district compared with the period 2001 to 2002.

The reduction follows several initiatives introduced by the Easington Community Safety Partnership, which is made up of representatives from the police, county and district councils, fire brigade, probation service, businesses and the community.

With support from the Home Office, the partnership has worked to tackle both crime and the fear of crime.

Measures the partnership has adopted include putting covert cameras in vulnerable properties, setting up a Nominated Neighbour Scheme to target bogus officials, working with the Darc project to combat burglaries on winter nights and making use of street wardens.

Habitual offenders have also been targeted and television screens have been set up in public areas to highlight achievements and communicate messages.

As a result of the Darc project, in December, there were less than half the number of burglaries as in the same month the previous year.

In January, there were 38 house burglaries compared with 90 the previous January.

Easington's divisional police commander, Chief Superintendent Trevor Watson, said: "Burglaries and thefts from houses were put forward as one of the main areas of concern by members of the public, and we tackled it as a priority.

"We are very pleased that the figures are down by almost one third, but we do not intend to be complacent, and will continue with our efforts.

"We know that people are concerned about their houses being broken into, but in Easington, which has 90,000 residents in 40,000 households, there is an average of fewer than two a day."

Alan Brown, communities director at the Government Office for the North-East, said: "This is just the sort of project the Home Office is keen to fund - local people, who know their own area best, working together to establish priorities and find solutions.

"The figures speak for themselves, and the partnership should be congratulated on the impressive reduction in the number of burglaries."