PEOPLE on Teesside still feel unsafe, despite a fall in the official crime figures.

Figures for September show that recorded offences in the Cleveland Police Force area fell by nearly 12 per cent, while detection rates rose by three per cent to 25.2 per cent.

A meeting of the Cleveland Police Authority was told that there were 5,318 offences recorded in the month, compared to 6,033 last year. House burglaries fell from 558 to 358, car crime dropped from 1,065 to 862 and robberies from 116 to 83.

However, there was a rise in the number of reports of criminal damage, up 67 to 1,285, and of violence from 760 to 892.

Authority member Keith Fisher said despite statistics proving crime was falling, people still felt unsafe.

He said: "I do not want people to feel safe if they are not entitled to, but in this case they are."

Cleveland force Chief Constable Sean Price said it was now important to make residents of the area feel safer.

He said: "The most important factor is how people feel about safety. Do they feel safer when they walk down the streets or not?

"It is now up to us to be able to show people that it is now safer. It is a safer place because there are less burglaries and less crime than last year."

Mr Price said one of the biggest difficulties the force faced in making residents believe they were safer was from the national newspapers. He said they routinely carried front page stories of how violent the country had become and because people see it on the front of the paper, they presume it is happening on Teesside.

He said: "We all - the media, local authorities and ourselves - have an important part to play in presenting how things have changed in our area. If it is bad, we will say it is bad. But it is good and let's get that message across."

Mr Price stressed the force was focused on violent crime and would not relent on burglaries.