THE number of house burglaries in Sedgefield borough is continuing to drop, despite a recent blip, say police.

Figures revealed at the latest meeting of the Sedgefield Burglary Action Group show there were 44 house burglaries in August and 31 in September.

PC Craig Dixon, of Sedgefield police, said: "There was a significant increase in burglaries in the month of August, up from the 25 we had in July. But we are throwing a lot more resources at it even as we speak and trying to find out who's responsible for them.

"Once again the information that we are getting is that people are committing burglaries to fund the drug habits that they have."

The action group, formed under the Sedgefield Community Safety Partnership banner, includes representatives from the police, Sedgefield Borough Council, Three Rivers Housing, Disc, Victim Support, the youth offending team and The Northern Echo.

Chairman of the group, Detective Chief Inspector Colin Pearson, said: "County Durham is statistically still one of the safest places to live in the country and Sedgefield division is still the safest place in County Durham, in terms of getting your house burgled.

"I don't think we're ever going to get to the stage where we get no burglaries recorded in a month because we've got to look at the real world.

"Even thought we've had this rise in August, there's still a significant decrease over the year, so we're pleased with that and working hard to countermand the increase in that month."