POLICE in Waverley have given themselves a pat on the back after the latest Home Office figures show that overall crime has fallen in the borough.

House burglaries are down by 14 per cent on last year's figures and Waverley had the lowest incidence of homes burgled within Surrey.

The borough also had the lowest number of violent offences in the county, despite the number of incidents rising from 582 in 1999/00 to 695 in 2000/01.

Police say that this increase can partly be attributed to increases in minor harassment and domestic dispute cases and say they are working hard to tackle this.

A number of new initiatives have been launched in a bid to tackle this rise, including the introduction of hand-held video cameras in areas which are not covered by CCTV. Violent crime detection rates were up from 71 per cent to 78 per cent.

Across the borough, officers are increasingly being assigned with specific area responsibility - Farnham's Sandy Hill estate has its own beat officer and in Cranleigh a Pc has been given the duty of looking after the town centre.

Waverley also has the lowest rate of thefts from cars of all the boroughs in Surrey, with 439 crimes in 2000/01 compared with 504 during 1999/00 - a decrease of 13 per cent.

Car theft follows a similar trend with a 12 per cent reduction on last year's figures.

Robberies are up by three offences on last year's figures, with 21 incidents in the borough, but Waverley still has the lowest number of robberies in Surrey.

Temporary chief inspector Andrew Nielsen said: "These unprecedented achievements are a result of considerable hard work by officers across the division and a focused, intelligence-led policing approach which has been adopted by Waverley police.

"It's really good news for Waverley and we are working very hard to reduce crime even further."