A rural area in the North East which has been hailed as one of the safest crime-free areas in Britain has just completed an excellent week with no thefts or vandalism.

Police officers were delighted yesterday with the blank spell in Barnard Castle, Co Durham, and the surrounding Teesdale district, but were careful not to boast about it.

In the past seven days the area has had just one offence reported - a garden shed at Cockfield where a padlock on the door was broken but nothing was stolen.

Police Sergeant Victoria Errington said yesterday, "It has been a really good week for us, but I wouldn't like to say too much about it in case it tempted fate.

"We had some poor weeks not long ago with the theft of farming equipment and other goods, along with quite a bit of vandalism around the town centre.

"In view of that it is pleasing to have so little to report. We had a couple of domestic incidents to deal with but apart from that it was really quiet."

Five months ago a national report showed that Teesdale had the best value of property linked to its rate of crime. The average house price was put at £113,143, and the crime rate was 18 per 1,000 households.

By comparison the City of Westminster had an average house price of £459,517 and a crime rate of 225 per 1,000 households. The national average was 131 crimes per 1,000 households.

Teesdale also had a superb week last month when police officers teamed up with volunteer farmers and gamekeepers to carry out night patrols. The operation was planned secretly. It resulted in a number of vehicles being stopped and poachers arrested, but there was not a single night-time theft.

Insp Kevin Tuck of Teesdale Police said it was a first class example of co-operation between police and public. He promised there would be repeats of this effort, and he hoped it would make would-be thieves stay away from the area.

After a spate of vandalism in Barnard Castle town centre, mainly of shop windows being smashed and vehicles damaged, he arranged for closed circuit TV cameras to be hired and put up for a trial period. This is still going on and seems to be having an impact.

Sgt Errington said yesterday, "We are being vigilant and continuing our patrols in line with current intelligence. And we will be trying to ensure there are no problems during the Easter holiday weekend."