CRIME has soared by more than 30pc in a small village near Darlington.

From January to the end of October, there have been 38 incidents in Heighington compared with 29 for the same period in 2003.

The increase is contrary to the general trend of the surrounding area, where crime has fallen by 19pc.

Local councillors are concerned about the issue, which was raised at the last meeting of Heighington Parish Council, where beat officer PC Julian Brown presented the statistics.

Coun Michael French said he felt a greater police presence was needed. "We see so little of the police and that bothers me," he said.

PC Brown said he had not been able to spend as much time in the village as he would have liked recently due to changes within Durham Constabulary which meant he was often called away from the area.

He had now been given a car and was able to help other officers in nearby towns, as well as respond to incidents in villages like Piercebridge.

However, he would spend a lot more time in the village in the run-up to Christmas.

After the meeting, council chairman Brian Anderson said: "Unless people report crime, the police will not attend.

"It is not a case of wasting police time but a waste of a phone call. The police are over-stretched."

He thought the increase was partly due to the displacement of crime away from the town centres because of the use of equipment like CCTV.

"They have issued those figures now and have got to be seen to be doing something about it," he said.

Insp Sue Collingwood from Durham Police said the increase in crime was a big figure as a statistic, but in real terms was an increase of just nine incidents on the previous year - less than one a month.

She said it was important to get the statistics into perspective.

"The figures are interesting - we are talking about 38 crimes to date this year for the Heighington area itself. If you go back to 2000, there were 66 crimes in the year. Since 2000, crime has come down and been held fairly constantly in or around the low 30 mark since then."

She said there had been just three house burglaries in Heighington this year compared with nine in 2000.

"Every incident that gets reported has to be prioritised. It is only right and proper so that the most urgent incident is dealt with first," she said.

"If that incident is happening at Heighington or Middleton St George then that is the incident that will be dealt with first."

She thought it unlikely that crime was being displaced from urban areas as the most common crime in town centres involved cars whereas crime in rural areas was often the theft of agricultural equipment.

The new Chestnuts housing estate was now included in the Heighington area for statistical purposes, which had added more than 200 homes.

"The opportunities for crime are increased by there being more houses," she said.

She said PC Brown was starting a Farm Watch scheme in Heighington.

"We are very, very pleased with the level of support and interest. Whatever community you are living in, if we can look out for each other in a positive way then that has got to be a good thing," she said.