POLICE are winning the fight against crime in the South Yarmouth area, according to the latest figures.Insp Nick Cheshire, of South Yarmouth Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT), said the number of crimes during the period from April 2008 to April 2009 had gone down by nearly 9pc on the previous period.

POLICE are winning the fight against crime in the South Yarmouth area, according to the latest figures.

Insp Nick Cheshire, of South Yarmouth Safer Neighbourhood Team (SNT), said the number of crimes during the period from April 2008 to April 2009 had gone down by nearly 9pc on the previous period.

He told a meeting of the area's Key Individual Network (KIN) on Monday the improved figures were due to the police's more pro-active methods in trying to prevent crime.

One example he cited was better security measures to prevent arsonists starting bin fires on the Barrack Estate, which included an initiative started by Sgt Dan Smith to provide homeowners with special locks for the bins to stop arsonists getting access to rubbish.

He added measures had also been taken to tackle youths behaving anti-socially outside McDonald's restaurant in Yarmouth by targeting the ringleaders and warning them about their behaviour.

Further action could be taken, including putting them on anti-social behaviour contracts to force them to improve their behaviour.

Insp Cheshire said: “The improved figures are related to problem solving. We are adopting more of a problem solving approach by trying to prevent crime from happening, such as by putting the special locks on the bins.”

He gave a breakdown of recorded crimes for the period from March 9 to March 22 which revealed there had been 10 assaults causing ABH, nine thefts from shops and five common assaults among a total of 50 incidents.